Discussion Questions
问题讨论

1. What Caused Silicon Valley Bank to Fail?
1. 是什么导致硅谷银行倒闭？

2. How did the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank affect financial markets? Will it trigger a new round of financial crisis?
2. 硅谷银行倒闭对金融市场有何影响？会不会引发新一轮金融危机？

3. What is a bank run? Do banks have a way to prevent a run when faced with it?
3. 什么是银行挤兑？银行在面临挤兑时有办法防止挤兑吗？

4. What is the "systemic risk exception"? Is it good to buy insurance for deposits? Is this practice common in China?
4. 什么是“系统性风险例外”？买存款保险好吗？这种做法在中国常见吗？

5. How do you think the Fed will respond or change on this matter?
5. 您认为美联储将如何回应或改变这个问题？

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)
硅谷银行 （SVB）

“This was a hysteria-induced bank run caused by venture capitals (VCs),” Ryan Falvey, a fintech investor of Restive Ventures, told CNBC.
“这是一场由风险投资 （VC） 引起的歇斯底里引发的银行挤兑，”Restive Ventures 的金融科技投资者 Ryan Falvey 告诉 CNBC。

Background
背景

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was a commercial bank headquartered in Santa Clara, California. SVB was the 16th-largest bank in the United States at the time of its failure on March 10, 2023, and was the largest bank by deposits in Silicon Valley. The bank’s main strategy was collecting deposits from businesses financed through venture capital. It then expanded into banking and financing venture capitalists themselves and added services to allow the bank to keep clients as they matured from their startup phase. Startup-focused lender SVB formally entered the private banking business in 2002, building on prior experience and relationships with wealthy venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. During the 2007–2008 financial crisis, SVB Financial Group received a $235 million investment from the federal government in exchange for preferred stock and warrants under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Over the course of two years, it paid $10 million in dividends to the U.S. Treasury, then used the proceeds of a $300 million stock sale to buy back the government's interest. SVB partnered with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB) in 2012 to create a separate Shanghai-based bank to lend to local technology startups. The new bank owned 50–50 by the two companies, received approval from Chinese bank regulators to operate in renminbi (RMB), making it one of a handful of American-owned banks permitted to do so.
硅谷银行 （SVB） 是一家总部位于加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉的商业银行。硅谷银行在 2023 年 3 月 10 日倒闭时是美国第 16 大银行，也是硅谷存款最大的银行。该银行的主要策略是从通过风险投资融资的企业那里收取存款。然后，它扩展到银行和融资风险投资家本身，并增加了服务，使银行能够在客户从创业阶段成熟时留住客户。专注于初创公司的贷款机构 SVB 于 2002 年正式进入私人银行业务，以先前的经验以及与富有的风险投资家和企业家的关系为基础。在 2007-2008 年金融危机期间，SVB 金融集团从联邦政府获得了 2.35 亿美元的投资，以换取问题资产救助计划 （TARP） 下的优先股和认股权证。在两年的时间里，它向美国财政部支付了 1000 万美元的股息，然后用 3 亿美元的股票出售收益回购了政府的权益。 SVB 于 2012 年与上海浦东发展银行 （SPDB） 合作，创建了一家单独的上海银行，为当地的科技初创公司提供贷款。两家公司各持股各占 50% 的股份，获得中国银行监管机构的批准，以人民币 （RMB） 运营，使其成为少数获准这样做的美国银行之一。

The bank's customers were primarily businesses and wealthy individuals in the technology, life science/healthcare, private equity/venture capital, and premium wine industries. In 2015, the bank stated that it served 65% of all U.S. startups. Its new offerings at the time included syndicated loans and foreign currency management, and it stood out as the only U.S. financial institution then working with virtual currency startups. As of December 31, 2022, 56% of its loan portfolio were loans to venture capital firms and private equity firms, secured by their limited partner commitments and used to make investments in private companies, 14% of its loans were mortgaged to high-net-worth individuals, and 24% of its loans were to technology and health care companies, including 9% of all loans which were to early and growth-stage startup companies.
该银行的客户主要是技术、生命科学/医疗保健、私募股权/风险投资和高档葡萄酒行业的企业和富裕人士。2015 年，该银行表示，它为 65% 的美国初创公司提供服务。它当时的新产品包括银团贷款和外汇管理，它成为当时唯一一家与虚拟货币初创公司合作的美国金融机构。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，其 56% 的贷款组合是向风险投资公司和私募股权公司提供的贷款，由其有限合伙人承诺担保，用于对私营公司进行投资，14% 的贷款抵押给高净值个人，24% 的贷款提供给技术和医疗保健公司，包括所有贷款的 9% 给早期和成长期初创公司。

Collapse of SVB
硅谷银行倒闭

Since the pandemic began, Silicon Valley Bank had been buying lots of what are often considered “safe” assets like U.S. Treasurys and government-backed mortgage bonds. In 2022, the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to tame inflation. The Federal Reserve moved aggressively, and higher borrowing costs sapped the momentum of tech stocks that had benefited SVB. SVB began to incur steep losses following increased interest rates and a major downturn in growth in the tech industry, where the bank's liabilities were heavily concentrated. Higher interest rates also eroded the value of long-term bonds that SVB and other banks gobbled up during the era of ultra-low, near-zero interest rates. When interest rates start to rise quickly, as they did last year, Silicon Valley Bank's fixed interest payments don’t keep up with rising rates. Those assets were no longer worth what the bank paid for them, and the bank was sitting on more than $17 billion in potential losses on those assets as of the end of last year. SVB’s $21 billion bond portfolio was yielding an average of 1.79% but the current 10-year Treasury yield is about 3.9%. As of December 31, 2022, SVB had mark-to-market accounting unrealized losses more than $15 billion for securities held to maturity, the bank was sitting on a mountain of unrealized losses in bonds. At the same time, venture capital began drying up, forcing startups to draw down funds held by SVB. As startup clients withdrew deposits to keep their companies afloat in a chilly environment for IPOs and private fundraising, SVB found itself short on capital. It had been forced to sell all its available-for-sale bonds at a $1.8 billion loss.
自大流行开始以来，硅谷银行一直在购买大量通常被认为是“安全”的资产，例如美国。 国债和政府支持的抵押贷款债券。 2022 年， 美联储开始加息以抑制通货膨胀。美联储采取激进行动，更高的借贷成本削弱了曾使硅谷银行受益的科技股的势头。在利率上升和科技行业增长大幅下滑后，硅谷银行开始遭受巨额亏损，该银行的负债高度集中。 更高的利率也侵蚀了硅谷银行和其他银行在超低、接近零利率的时代吞噬的长期债券的价值。当利率开始迅速上升时，就像去年一样，硅谷银行的固定利息支付跟不上利率上升。这些资产不再值银行为它们支付的费用，截至去年年底，该银行在这些资产上的潜在损失超过 170 亿美元。硅谷银行 210 亿美元的债券投资组合平均收益率为 1.79%，但目前的 10 年期美国国债收益率约为 3.9%。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，硅谷银行持有至到期的证券按市值计价的会计未实现亏损超过 150 亿美元，该银行坐拥堆积如山的债券未实现亏损。 与此同时，风险投资开始枯竭，迫使初创公司撤出 SVB 持有的资金。 随着初创公司客户提取存款以维持公司在 IPO 和私人融资的寒冷环境中维持运营，SVB 发现自己资金短缺。它被迫以 18 亿美元的亏损出售所有可供出售的债券。

On March 8, 2023, SVB announced it had sold a bunch of securities at a loss, and that it would also sell $2.25 billion in new shares to shore up its balance sheet. This news surprised investors and triggered a panic among key venture capital firms, who reportedly advised companies to withdraw their money from the bank. A concern that a bank run at SVB could pose an existential threat to startups who couldn’t tap their deposits sparked another wave of deposit withdrawals on March 9, 2023, customers withdrew a staggering $42 billion of deposits by the end of day, according to a California regulatory filing. The precipitous deposit withdrawal has caused the Bank to be incapable of paying its obligations as they come due and is now insolvent.
2023 年 3 月 8 日，硅谷银行宣布已亏本出售一堆证券，还将出售 22.5 亿美元的新股以支撑其资产负债表。这一消息让投资者感到惊讶，并在主要风险投资公司中引发了恐慌，据报道，这些公司建议公司从银行提取资金。根据加州监管文件，担心 SVB 的银行挤兑可能会对无法动用存款的初创公司构成生存威胁，这引发了 2023 年 3 月 9 日的另一波存款提取浪潮，客户在当天结束时提取了惊人的 420 亿美元的存款。仓促的存款提取导致该银行无力支付到期债务，现已资不抵债。

The bank’s stock began plummeting Thursday morning (see Graph 1) and by the afternoon it was dragging other bank shares down with it as investors began to fear a repeat of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Within 48 hours, a panic induced by the very venture capital community that SVB had served and nurtured ended the bank’s 40-year-run. California banking regulators closed the Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, 2023, and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver for later disposition of its assets. The failure of the 40-year-old institution became the largest bank crash since the 2008 financial crisis, and it put nearly $175 billion in customer deposits under the regulator’s control. By the close of business that day, SVB had a negative cash balance of $958 million, according to the filing, and failed to scrounge enough collateral from other sources, the regulator said.
该银行的股票从周四上午开始暴跌（见图 1），到下午，由于投资者开始担心 2007-2008 年金融危机重演，其他银行股票也随之下跌。在 48 小时内，SVB 所服务和培育的风险投资界引发了一场恐慌，结束了该银行 40 年的经营。加州银行业监管机构于 2023 年 3 月 10 日关闭了硅谷银行，并任命联邦存款保险公司 （FDIC） 为接管人，以便稍后处置其资产。这家拥有 40 年历史的机构倒闭成为自 2008 年金融危机以来最大的银行倒闭，它使近 1750 亿美元的客户存款处于监管机构的控制之下。监管机构表示，根据文件，截至当天收盘，硅谷银行的现金余额为9.58亿美元，并且未能从其他来源搜集到足够的抵押品。

Graph 1
图 1

The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB). At the time of closing, the FDIC as receiver immediately transferred to the DINB all insured deposits of Silicon Valley Bank. According to FDIC, the main office and all branches of Silicon Valley Bank will reopen on March 13, and all insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, but 89% of the bank's $175 billion in deposits were uninsured as the end of 2022. On March 12, the FDIC, along with the Treasury Department and Secretary Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve, and President Biden, said that they would use a “systemic risk exception” to cover the uninsured deposits of SVB and Signature. The systemic risk exception is an exception to federal law that otherwise would require the FDIC to resolve a bank failure at the lowest cost to the Government's deposit insurance fund. Customers could then also access these deposits on Monday morning. FDIC are looking for bank who is willing to merge with Silicon Valley Bank. Shock from Silicon Valley’s woes reverberated through parts of the banking sector, and investors started to dump bank stocks, including those of First Republic, Signature Bank and Western Alliance. Signature Bank is a 24-year-old New York-based institution that makes loans primarily to real estate companies and law firms and saw large deposits leaving its vault. To prevent the spread of banking contagion, regulators seized Signature Bank. To some extent, the bank, which had 40 branches, was a victim of the panic surrounding Silicon Valley Bank. Like SVB, Signature had a relatively large amount of uninsured deposits because of its business model catering to private companies. On March 13, 2023, Regional bank stocks plunged, with First Republic shares the hardest hit, down 60%. HSBC announced that it would buy Silicon Valley Bank’s British subsidiary.
FDIC 创建了圣克拉拉国家存款保险公司 （DINB）。在交易结束时，作为接管人的 FDIC 立即将硅谷银行的所有保险存款转交给 DINB。据 FDIC 称，硅谷银行的总行和所有分行将于 3 月 13 日重新开放，所有投保储户将在周一早上之前完全使用他们的投保存款，但截至 2022 年底，该银行 1750 亿美元的存款中有 89% 没有保险。 3 月 12 日，FDIC 与财政部和部长珍妮特·耶伦 （Janet Yellen）、美联储和拜登总统一起表示，他们将使用“系统性风险例外”来涵盖 SVB 和 Signature 的未保险存款。 系统性风险例外是联邦法律的一个例外，否则将要求 FDIC 以政府存款保险基金的最低成本解决银行倒闭问题。然后，客户也可以在周一早上访问这些存款。FDIC 正在寻找愿意与硅谷银行合并的银行。 硅谷困境的冲击波及部分银行业，投资者开始抛售银行股，包括第一共和银行（First Republic）、签名银行（Signature Bank）和西部联盟（Western Alliance）的银行股。Signature Bank 是一家拥有 24 年历史的纽约机构，主要向房地产公司和律师事务所提供贷款，并从其金库中取出大量存款。 为了防止银行业传染的蔓延，监管机构查封了 Signature Bank。 在某种程度上，这家拥有 40 家分行的银行是围绕硅谷银行恐慌的受害者。与 SVB 一样，Signature 的 未保险存款量相对较大，因为其商业模式迎合了私营公司的需求。2023 年 3 月 1 3 日，地区银行股暴跌，其中第一共和银行股受打击最严重，下跌 60%。 汇丰银行宣布将收购硅谷银行的英国子公司。

What Cause Collapse
导致 Collapse 的原因

Although the collapse of SVB seems to be caused by a bank run, in fact, it is the Federal Reserve's crazy interest rate hikes that inhibit the growth of the market and cause the SVB crisis. The bank’s main strategy was collecting deposits from businesses financed through venture capital, adding interest rates will cost them a lot of capital. As the largest bank by deposits in Silicon Valley, SVB also has a larger investment share in the technology market. As a startup-focused lender, SVB has lent a lot of money to startups in the cryptocurrency market in recent years. However, the cryptocurrency market has not performed very well in recent years, and the US technology industry has also suffered a downturn due to the interest rate increase. Therefore, when SVB found itself short on capital, many venture capitalists fear that SVB will run out of their capital and cause a financial crisis, so they all want to pull out their deposits and transfer them to the other place.
虽然硅谷银行的倒闭看似是银行挤兑造成的，但实际上，正是美联储疯狂的加息抑制了市场的增长，导致了硅谷银行危机。该银行的主要策略是从通过风险投资融资的企业那里收取存款，增加利率将使他们花费大量资金。作为硅谷存款规模最大的银行，硅谷银行在科技市场的投资份额也较大。作为一家专注于初创公司的贷方，SVB 近年来向加密货币市场的初创公司提供了大量资金 。然而，加密货币市场近年来表现不佳，美国科技行业也因加息而陷入低迷。因此，当 SVB 发现自己资金短缺时，许多风险投资家担心 SVB 会耗尽他们的资金并引发金融危机，因此他们都想提取存款并转移到其他地方。

Reference
参考

Giang and Dang (2023) Bank Runs, Crypto Concerns and Takeovers: A Timeline of the Panic. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/article/svb-silicon-valley-bank-collapse-timeline.html
Giang andDang （2023）银行挤兑、加密问题和收购：恐慌的时间线。纽约时报。取自 https://www.nytimes.com/article/svb-silicon-valley-bank-collapse-timeline.html

Demos (2023). What Happened With Silicon Valley Bank? The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-bank-svb-financial-what-is-happening-299e9b65
演示 （2023）。硅谷银行怎么了？华尔街日报。取自 https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-bank-svb-financial-what-is-happening-299e9b65

Maruf and Morrow (2023). How does a bank collapse in 48 hours? A timeline of the SVB fall. CNN. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/11/business/svb-bank-collapse-explainer-timeline/index.html
Maruf 和 Morrow （2023）。 银行如何在 48 小时内倒闭？硅谷银行下跌的时间表。美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）。取自 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/11/business/svb-bank-collapse-explainer-timeline/index.html