Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th-largest bank in the US and a major lender to the technology and startup sector, failed on 10 March 2023 after a bond portfolio, badly hit by the Federal Reserve's rapid interest rate rises, forced a capital raise that in turn triggered a rapid depositor run. It was the largest US bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

US regulators (the FDIC) took control of the bank immediately, and authorities took the unusual step of guaranteeing all deposits — including those above the normal $250,000 insurance limit — to try to prevent a wider run on regional banks. Contagion fears spread quickly to global banking stocks; within days, long-standing concerns about Credit Suisse came to a head, leading to its emergency takeover by UBS.

The episode led directly to tighter scrutiny of regional bank balance sheets and interest-rate risk management across the sector, and briefly revived memories of 2008 even though the underlying causes were quite different.