US closes Silicon Valley Bank in biggest collapse since 2008

United States regulators pulled the plug on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Friday (Mar 10) in a spectacular move that sent global banking shares sputtering, as markets fretted over possible contagion from America's biggest banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

US authorities swooped in and seized the assets of SVB, a key lender to US tech start-ups since the 1980s, after a run on deposits made it no longer tenable for the medium-sized bank to stay afloat on its own.

Little known to the general public, SVB specialised in financing start-ups and had become the 16th largest US bank by assets. At the end of 2022, it had US$209 billion in assets and approximately US$175.4 billion in deposits.

Its demise represents not only the largest bank failure since Washington Mutual in 2008, but also the second-largest failure ever for a retail bank in the US.

In response to the sudden collapse, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened an emergency meeting of top US banking regulators.