SVB / Regional Bank Crisis 2023
March 2023’s US regional-bank crisis (SVB, Signature, First Republic) was a social-media deposit run on duration-mismatched, uninsured-deposit franchises — 1980s S&L math plus a Twitter fuse.
Definition
SVB held long Treasuries/agencies funded by flighty uninsured tech deposits. Mark-to-market holes were hidden in HTM. A capital raise attempt advertised the hole; the run finished the bank in hours. Systemic-risk exception and BTFP backstopped the rest of the complex.
Why it matters
It re-taught duration + uninsured deposits. Also that ‘held to maturity’ is an accounting identity, not a liquidity identity, if depositors leave.
Case
8–10 March 2023 SVB, Signature the same weekend, First Republic later absorbed by JPM. Credit Suisse was the European twin that weekend, with a different ending (AT1).
How to read it
Uninsured share, HTM vs AFS marks, and deposit concentration. If those three are ugly, the run math is 2023 even if the logo is new.
Key papers
Landmark references with real publisher or arXiv links — not token-overlap noise.
- Monetary Tightening and U.S. Bank Fragility in 2023Jiang, Matvos, Piskorski, Seru · 2023 · NBERMark-to-market hole in the US banking book.