The bank that gave the world the jitters

Queues form outside Silicon Valley Bank's headquarters in Santa Clara, California. (Image: Getty)

Sat, 18 Mar 2023

It was big. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was a 40-year-old institution that's bigger than New Zealand's BNZ and ANZ banks combined – and until last week, it was the16th largest bank in the US.But a run on the bank’s deposits led to it being formally taken over by the US federal government on March 10.Its management could only watch as customers withdrew US$42 billion (NZ$68b) within two days. Finally, they raised their collective hands for help.SVB is the banker for a high number of technology companies, and the deposits a...

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