US Fed raised concerns about SVB at least four years before collapse

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IANS | 20 Mar, 2023
The US Federal Reserve began sounding the alarm about Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB's) risk management arm starting at least four years ago in 2019, according to a report.

In January 2019, the Fed issued a warning known as a 'Matter Requiring Attention', a citation a step-down from an enforcement action, about SVB's risk-management systems, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing documents from a presentation circulated last year to employees of SVB's venture-capital arm.

The presentation reportedly said the Fed again warned SVB in 2020 that its system to control risk did not meet the expectations for a large financial institution, or a bank holding company with more than $100 billion in assets. The bank at that time was in a period of rapid growth as deposits flooded in at the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Fox Business reported.

According to the Journal, the presentation notes that SVB's average level of interest-earning assets grew 76% in the first quarter of 2021, compared with the same period one year earlier.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data show SVB's assets grew to $114 billon at the end of 2020, up from the bank's $70 billion in 2019 � the year the Federal Reserve first raised eyebrows.

SVB had nearly twice as much in assets from 2020 to the end of 2021, clocking in at about $209 billion, Fox Business reported.

Questions remain around why SVB was allowed to double in size after the Fed raised concerns about the bank's risk management systems. A Federal Reserve review of its oversight of SVB is due by May.