to this report.
On Friday, the FDIC announced that customers of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) would have access to up to $250,000 of their deposits by Monday morning, following the bank's closure. SVB, the nation's 16th-largest bank, was ordered to shut down after customers began withdrawing their money as anxiety about the financial institution's stability spread throughout the week.
The FDIC is an independent government agency created during the Great Depression to restore public confidence in banks. The FDIC offers customers insurance for up to $250,000 in deposits if their bank fails. This insurance was put into action with the closure of SVB.
SVB is the first bank to fail since 2020 and the second-largest bank failure in US history, following Washington Mutual which collapsed during the Great Recession. Bankrate analyst Matthew Goldberg called the SVB closure a "wake-up call" to make sure money is deposited in an FDIC-insured institution.
The FDIC took control of SVB's assets by creating a new quasi-bank, the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara. This new bank will be responsible for selling off SVB's remaining assets to help customers regain access to their funds.
The FDIC's BankFind [https://banks.data.fdic.gov/bankfind-suite/bankfind] tool can be used to find out if a bank is FDIC-insured. Customers should also contact the bank directly with any questions.
The closure of SVB and the FDIC's intervention to help customers regain access to their funds serves as a reminder of the importance of depositing money in FDIC-insured institutions. It also highlights the government's role in stabilizing the financial industry in times of crisis.