Why are banks failing in the United States?

The regulation allows banks to have two different accounting boxes, so to speak: one that is public, in which are the short-term bonds; and another in which the valuations of the investment portfolios are found with all the bonds and assets that they have in the long term, explained Siller.

That second box does not have to be public because they are not unrealized gains or losses, they are not assumed unless you sell that investment portfolio before the expiration term, he added.

In the case of SVB, explained Juan Rich, there was a strong concentration of some venture capital and technology companies. At the time the deposit outflows occurred, it had liquidity problems.

These banks, the analysts agreed, held money from their depositors in the short term and invested it in long-term instruments.

When the Federal Reserve (Fed) began to raise the interest rate to combat high inflation, the prices of bonds and shares fell, so these portfolios that the banks had began to show losses and losses. The banks could wait for the expiration date or for the Fed to cut the interest rate, and absolutely nothing was going to happen, said Gabriela Siller.

However, fearing a repeat of what happened in 2008-2009, depositors withdrew their money. Having this exit, SVB and Signature Bank had to sell the investments they had, but at a loss, so they made a hole in their balance sheet, Bx+’s Rich complemented.

What happened in the regional banks of the United States does not represent a risk for Mexican banks, since regulations in the country are very strict. In addition, they have capitalization ratios of more than 19%, are paying good dividends and have low delinquency rates, Siller and Rich agreed.

“We are going to have a bit of noise, but it is an issue that should diminish over time,” anticipated the BX+ manager.