Fed official: SVB itself was main cause of bank’s failure

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top financial regulator is asserting that Silicon Valley Bank’s own management was largely to blame for the bank’s failure earlier this month and says the Federal Reserve will review whether a 2018 law that weakened stricter bank rules also contributed to its collapse. The Fed’s vice chair for supervision, Michael Barr, says in written testimony to be delivered Tuesday at a Senate hearing that the California-based bank’s failure “is a textbook case of mismanagement.” Barr points to SVB’s “concentrated business model,” in which its customers were overwhelmingly venture capital and high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. Barr contends the bank failed to manage the risks of its bond holdings.