Western Alliance’s stock price plummeted by three quarters, with shares in First Republic diving by 67 percent, and PacWest by more than 35 percent.
There was a trading halt on dozens of regional banks this morning as shares dropped by up to 75 percent, even after President Joe Biden claimed that "US banking is safe."
A cluster of US banks also experienced a nosedive, with Bank of America dropping 7.4 percent, Citigroup falling 5.8 percent, Fargo nosediving by 7.5 percent, and JP Morgan taking a hit by 2.7 percent, according to the Daily Mail.
https://rumble.com/embed/v2ac5pa/?pub=2n05b
Western Alliance’s stock price plummeted by three quarters ahead of Wall Street’s opening bell, with shares in First Republic diving by 67 percent, and PacWest by more than 35 percent.
Biden addressed the country from the Roosevelt Room in the White House on Monday morning, attempting to prevent further financial catastrophe after the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday.
Biden said: “Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe,” just minutes before the market opened.
The dramatic financial freefall occurred despite US authorities previously assuring Americans on Sunday that SVB's customer's money would be safe and available for withdrawal on Monday amid a run on the bank last week that reportedly triggered the second-largest collapse in US history, the most severe since 2008.
The Fed reportedly announced that a New Bank Funding Program will offer loans for up to a full year in return for premium collateral, such as Treasuries, according to the Mail.
Biden spent less than four minutes defending his previous remarks, suggesting that those in charge at SVB should be fired, claiming that the loose regulations under former President Donald Trump were partially to blame.
"If the bank is taken over by FDIC, the people running the bank should not work there anymore," he said.
He went on to suggest a "full accounting" of what specifically led to the shutdown of SVB and "why those responsible can be held accountable."
"In my administration, no one is above the law. And finally, I must reduce the risk of this happening again."
Biden also noted that those who chose to support a failed bank "knowingly took a risk and when the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money. That’s how capitalism works."
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