Commentary
Bank runs, as they say, have a way of spiraling.
The first two bank failures, those of Silvergate Bank and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), were the results of idiosyncratic circumstances at those two entities. Or so the analysts say. But when New York-based Signature Bank was also taken over by regulators on March 12, a full-on panic ensued. Signature was under scrutiny for weeks, if not months, for its role in cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s collapse last year. It had taken steps last year and this year to reduce its crypto deposit exposure, and its disclosures for the last few months revealed an orderly reduction of crypto deposits. Crypto deposits were less than 18 percent of the total, Signature said in early March….