The CEO of the largest bank in the U.S. is warning the government to avoid “knee-jerk, whack-a-mole or politically motivated responses,” to the latest bank failures. JPMorgan Chase leader Jamie Dimon has been meeting behind the scenes with regulators and other bank leaders over the past month but commented publicly on the banking crisis for the first time on Tuesday, April 4.
In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon said the latest banking risks that led to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were “hiding in plain sight.”
“This wasn’t the finest hour for many players,” he wrote, saying that while it doesn’t absolve Silicon Valley Bank management, the Federal Reserve also made mistakes. Dimon criticized the Fed’s current model to stress test banks, noting that they never incorporated the risk of rising interest rates.
Silicon Valley Bank found itself in trouble after failing to hedge interest-rate risk when buying bonds. Over the past year, the Federal Reserve raised its interest rate from near-zero to nearly 5%, and SVB’s low-interest bearing, long-term securities lost market value.
In a notice that ended up triggering a devastating bank run, SVB management announced they were raising capital and had sold $21 billion in bonds at a $1.8 billion loss. The next day, customers attempted to withdraw 20% of the bank’s total deposits, causing the bank to collapse.
Signature Bank customers followed suit, with federal regulators taking control of both banks. Other regional banks wobbled in the aftermath of the collapse as customers pulled funds out of smaller banks, worried they could face a similar fate. Dimon led efforts to stabilize First Republic Bank from collapse, which included pooling together a $30 billion lifeline to the bank.
“The current crisis is not yet over, and even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come,” Dimon said. “But importantly, recent events are nothing like what occurred during the 2008 financial crisis.”
As politicians push out legislative proposals based on the banking turmoil, Dimon warned that the debate should not always be divided between more or less regulation, but about the right mix of regulations that “will keep America’s banking system the best in the world.”
The banking upheaval did not stay within U.S. borders following the bank collapses. Switzerland’s Credit Suisse also fell in the aftermath, with the government orchestrating a buyout by the country’s largest bank, UBS Group. Meanwhile, First Citizens Bank scooped up SVB and its deposits at a $16.5 billion discount.
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