By Rob McMillan I St. Helena resident Rob McMillan shares his own experiences when Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the United States, was shut down by federal regulators on March 10.
This is a very interesting inside look at the crisis. Well done. Of course, what it doesn’t address is the fact that the 2018 rollback of some provisions of Dodd-Frank is what allowed the mess in the first place. The fact that the wine division managed to survive is terrific, but how much better if the failure hadn’t happened at all? If the restrictions of Dodd-Frank had been maintained for all banks with assets greater than $50 billion, instead of being raised to cover only banks larger that $250 billion in assets? The CEO of SVB was one of those who led the charge for this change. The actual message? Don’t allow bank lobbyists to pressure lawmakers to make ruinous decisions for the country.
This is a very interesting inside look at the crisis. Well done. Of course, what it doesn’t address is the fact that the 2018 rollback of some provisions of Dodd-Frank is what allowed the mess in the first place. The fact that the wine division managed to survive is terrific, but how much better if the failure hadn’t happened at all? If the restrictions of Dodd-Frank had been maintained for all banks with assets greater than $50 billion, instead of being raised to cover only banks larger that $250 billion in assets? The CEO of SVB was one of those who led the charge for this change. The actual message? Don’t allow bank lobbyists to pressure lawmakers to make ruinous decisions for the country.