U.S. bank failings make waves for pension fund investors

The failing of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in California and Signature Bank in New York — two of the three biggest bank failures in U.S. banking history — have had far-reaching effects beyond the cities where things went awry.

SVB, which had $212 billion of assets and $342 billion of total client funds as of fourth quarter 2022, had suffered a $1.8 billion after-tax loss and was urgently seeking to raise more capital when it was closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) March 10 after being inundated with a slew of customer withdrawals. The FDIC was named receiver of the closed bank and transferred all the deposits and substantially all of the assets of SVB to Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, a full-service bank that will be operated by the FDIC as it markets the institution to potential bidders.

Just two days later, the FDIC also took control of Signature Bank, which had $110.36 billion in assets and $88.59 billion in deposits at the end of 2022, also transfer