Two things to be aware of about banking. When you deposit your money, you become an unsecured creditor of the bank. And if the bank fails, if you’re over the FDIC limit ($250,000) you’ll split up what’s left with all the other unsecured creditors, and you’re all at the bottom of the pile. From Wolf Richter at wolfstreet.com:
The bank survived the Dotcom Bust. But this bust is far bigger because the Free-Money bubble was far bigger. FDIC may not have a loss on this deal.
Silicon Valley Bank, a California state-chartered bank that was uniquely exposed to the massive all-encompassing startup bubble during the Free Money era – a bubble that is now imploding spectacularly amid what is called a mass extinction event among startups – was shut down and taken over Friday morning by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI). In its press release, the regulator cited “inadequate liquidity and insolvency.”
The DFPI appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. The FDIC announced that it had created the “Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara (DINB)” and that the FDIC, as receiver, “immediately transferred to the DINB all insured deposits of Silicon Valley Bank” to protect insured depositors. Depositors will have access to their insured deposits on Monday, March 13.