Warren, Waters Press Fed Vice Chair Bowman on Failure to Hold Bank Execs Accountable on 3rd Anniversary of Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

Warren, Waters Press Fed Vice Chair Bowman on Failure to Hold Bank Execs Accountable on 3rd Anniversary of Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

"Your inaction signals to all current big bank executives that they too are above the law and will not face consequences for putting the stability of the banking system at risk."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Michelle Bowman, Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, pressing her on the status of the Fed's investigation into Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) executives for violating federal banking laws and regulations and urging the swift enforcement of civil money penalties and industry bans. This week marks three years since the collapse of SVB, which triggered a banking crisis that required another round of government bailouts to prevent broader crisis and economic disaster.

"In the years leading up to its failure, SVB tripled in size, growing rapidly from less than $60 billion in total assets in 2019 to $209 billion by the end of 2022. Thanks to the big bank deregulation you championed during the first Trump Administration, SVB was free to load up on risk without sufficient guardrails and appropriate scrutiny. Notably, at the end of 2022, a staggering 94 percent of SVB's total deposits were uninsured," wrote the lawmakers.

"While the FDIC has taken initial steps to hold the executives accountable in its role as receiver, the Federal Reserve, which has a more rigorous set of tools as the primary federal regulator of SVB, has yet to act," wrote the lawmakers. "However, another year has passed and the Fed has still not exercised its authorities to hold SVB executives accountable. The Fed has the authority to impose civil money penalties for unsafe and unsound practices and other legal violations."

The lawmakers continued: "Instead of pursuing rulemakings to prevent SVB-style crashes or holding the executives responsible for the collapse accountable, you are spending your time and taxpayer resources trying to re-write history. Several analyses, including those conducted by the Fed and the Fed's Inspector General, found that the deregulation implemented by President Trump's first Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles, which you strongly supported, contributed to SVB's failure."

Three years after SVB's failure, the lawmakers are calling on the Federal Reserve to answer questions about its investigations into SVB and the unsafe practices of bank executives by March 24, 2026.

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