In an effort to prevent a potential banking crisis Sunday, US regulators shut down NY-based Signature Bank, a major lender which focused on lending in the crypto-industry.
The US Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC said in a joint statement released Sunday evening, “We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank, New York, New York, which was closed today by its state chartering authority.”
In a move similar to the guarantee given to depositors at the failed Silicon Valley Bank, regulators assured depositors at Signature Bank that they would have full access to their deposits.
The regulators said, “All depositors of this institution will be made whole. As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.”
On Friday, regulators closed down Silicon Valley Bank and seized its deposits. It was the biggest US banking failure seen going back to the US financial crisis of 2008, and the second biggest in history. The events were set in motion after the tech-focused bank had revealed it had been forced to sell off assets at a loss to generate liquidity, which caused depositors to make a run on the bank’s deposits.
Signature is the second biggest bank primarily servicing the cryptocurrency industry. The largest, Sivergate, was forced to announce its pending liquidation last week. As of Friday, it’s market value was $4.4 billion, following a 40% sell-off this year, according to FactSet.
According to a securities filing, as of December 31st, Signature held $110.4 billion in total assets, and $88.6 billion in total deposits.
Due to fears of these banking failures triggering a broader crisis, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury used the Fed’s emergency lending authority to backstop deposits at both Signature Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank,
The FDICs deposit insurance fund will be used to guarantee all deposits, despite many of them having been uninsured due to the $250,000 limit on deposit guarantees.
While depositors will have access to their money, a Treasury official said that equity and bond-holders will be entirely wiped out.
