Regulators Close New York’s Signature Bank, Citing Systemic Risk

By CNBC
Posted on 03/12/23 | News Source: CNBC

U.S. regulators said Sunday it shut down New York-based Signature Bank, a second financial institution they shuttered after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.

“We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank, New York, New York, which was closed today by its state chartering authority,” Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC said in a joint statement Sunday evening.

The banking regulators said depositors at Signature Bank will have full access to their deposits.

“All depositors of this institution will be made whole. As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer,” the regulators said.

Signature is one of the main banks to the cryptocurrency industry. As of Dec. 31, Signature had $110.4 billion in total assets and $88.6 billion in total deposits, according to a securities filing.

To stem the damage and stave off a bigger crisis, the Fed and Treasury created an emergency a program to backstop deposits at Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank using the Fed’s emergency lending authority.

The regulators shuttered SVB on Friday and seized its deposits in the largest U.S. banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis — and the second-largest ever. The dramatic moves come just days after the tech-focused institution reported that it was struggling, triggering a run on the bank’s deposits.