On Sunday, March 12th, the Treasury Department, the FDIC, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) (the Agencies) announced that the New York Department of Financial Services had appointed the FDIC as receiver for Signature Bank, which was closed on March 11th. Subsequently, the FDIC announced that it had transferred substantially all of the assets and all of the deposits of Signature Bank to the newly created Signature Bridge Bank, N.A. Early on March 13th, the FDIC announced a similar transfer of assets and deposits to Silicon Valley Bank, N.A., another newly-formed bridge bank. The Agencies also announced that they were invoking the Systemic Risk Exception to the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDI Act) to permit the FDIC to take action to fully protect all depositors of both banks, regardless of their deposit insurance coverage. Finally, the Fed announced the creation of a new Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) that is designed to help assure that open banks have the capacity to meet the needs of their depositors.
On Monday, March 13th, the UK Government announced that Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVBUK) has been sold to HSBC in an arrangement that will preserve all customer deposits and enable its banking business to continue as a going concern. As a result of the sale, the UK Government will no longer apply to Court to place SVBUK into a Bank Insolvency Procedure as had previously been announced on Friday, March 10th.
These are fluid and quickly evolving events. Below are general insights on issues that have arisen to date in both the US and the UK - please continue to check this page for updates. Please feel free to reach out to your Dechert team or the contacts listed here.
Each situation should be evaluated based on its unique facts and circumstances. The below is not intended to be, and should not be construed as, legal advice.