Odd Lots

Transcript: The Regulatory Blunders Behind the SVB Disaster

A disaster a long time in the making.

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 13, 2023. US authorities took extraordinary measures to shore up confidence in the financial system after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, introducing a new backstop for banks that Federal Reserve officials said was big enough to protect the entire nation's deposits.Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

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By Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway

March 16, 2023 at 11:53 AM EDT

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By now we have a decent understanding of the business choices that caused Silicon Valley Bank to fail. It made a bad bet on interest rates. Its depositors were not as sticky as they might have assumed. But of course, banks also have regulations, and supervisors intended to avoid such errors. So what went wrong on the regulatory side? On this episode, we speak with Columbia Law School professor Lev Menand about the history of banking regulations and the choices that lead up to this disaster. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

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