Silicon Valley Bank Crash And Repercussions

What went wrong with the U.S.'s 16th largest bank and how has it affected the rest of the sector? Andrew Pimlott  explains:

Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) failure on Friday, March 10th was the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis. Then, two days later on Sunday, came the fall of Signature Bank. The U.S. government and regulators were quick to rescue both banks to protect the financial system, but it was not enough to prevent the contagion spreading across the country's banking sector and to the other side of the Atlantic.

Confidence in Silicon Valley Bank's UK subsidiary evaporated and it had to be saved by HSBC, who bought it for £1 on the Monday after a weekend of frantic discussions involving the Bank of England, HM Treasury, and the financial regulators. Yet, the panic could not be contained. The next high-profile victim was Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse which saw its shares fall 30% on Wednesday, March 15th. It had to borrow SFr50bn ($54bn) from the