Quick Simple News for People with No Time: The FED comes to the Rescue for SVB
It's like we never learn.
After this announcement by the FED:
People's hopes started growing and their emotions settled for a bit.
But let's get in-depth on what happened.
Silicon Valley Bank collapsed the previous week and I wrote all about it here:
Lucas Schiavini
And now the Fed has released a statement that basically says:
To support American businesses and households, the Federal Reserve Board on Sunday announced it will make available additional funding to eligible depository institutions to help assure banks have the ability to meet the needs of all their depositors. This action will bolster the capacity of the banking system to safeguard deposits and ensure the ongoing provision of money and credit to the economy.
The Federal Reserve is prepared to address any liquidity pressures that may arise.
The additional funding will be made available through the creation of a new Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP), offering loans of up to one year in length to banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other eligible depository institutions pledging U.S. Treasuries, agency debt and mortgage-backed securities, and other qualifying assets as collateral. These assets will be valued at par. The BTFP will be an additional source of liquidity against high-quality securities, eliminating an institution’s need to quickly sell those securities in times of stress.
With approval of the Treasury Secretary, the Department of the Treasury will make available up to $25 billion from the Exchange Stabilization Fund as a backstop for the BTFP. The Federal Reserve does not anticipate that it will be necessary to draw on these backstop funds.
After receiving a recommendation from the boards of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve, Treasury Secretary Yellen, after consultation with the President, approved actions to enable the FDIC to complete its resolutions of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in a manner that fully protects all depositors, both insured and uninsured. These actions will reduce stress across the financial system, support financial stability and minimize any impact on businesses, households, taxpayers, and the broader economy.
The Board is carefully monitoring developments in financial markets. The capital and liquidity positions of the U.S. banking system are strong and the U.S. financial system is resilient.
Depository institutions may obtain liquidity against a wide range of collateral through the discount window, which remains open and available. In addition, the discount window will apply the same margins used for the securities eligible for the BTFP, further increasing lendable value at the window.
The Board is closely monitoring conditions across the financial system and is prepared to use its full range of tools to support households and businesses, and will take additional steps as appropriate.
What does that mean?
It means in clear English, printing money (therefore not directly affecting taxpayer's money, but affecting it nonetheless by increasing inflation in the short term) to pay off the customers of these banks, so that everyone doesn't go nuts because they lost their savings in such a bank.
What happens now?
Now banks know they don't have to follow good procedures for risk management such as positioning themselves in convex operations. Instead, they can just wait for the fed to rescue them when they get low liquidity due to locking all their assets into these types of investments:
savings associations, credit unions, and other eligible depository institutions pledging U.S. Treasuries, agency debt and mortgage-backed securities, and other qualifying assets as collateral. These assets will be valued at par. The BTFP will be an additional source of liquidity against high-quality securities, eliminating an institution’s need to quickly sell those securities in times of stress.
We live in a weird world.
Update 2023-03-16:
It suits me well to learn my lessons by making mistakes. I realized that I misinterpreted the situation a bit. Instead of a full-on bailout, SVB will still go under, it's only their customers who will get the bailout.
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