Independent Investigation Urged by Senator Warren in Wake of Bank Failures

Elizabeth Warren, the US Senator from Massachusetts, has called for an independent investigation into the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, two of the largest bank failures in the country’s history. In a letter to the Federal Reserve Board’s inspector general, the Treasury Department’s deputy inspector general, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)’s acting inspector general on March 18, Warren urged them to immediately commence a thorough investigation into the regulatory and supervisory issues that led to the bank failures.

Warren highlighted that until the banks were determined to be a “systemic risk” and the Treasury Department intervened to guarantee billions of dollars of deposits, these failures threatened economic contagion and severe damage to the banking and financial systems. In her letter, Warren argued that the banks’ executives must be held accountable for these failures, and the mismanagement occurred because of a series of failures by lawmakers and regulators.

The US Senator alleged that the Dodd-Frank Act, which was weakened by Congress and former US President Donald Trump, allowed banks like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank to evade critical regulations. Furthermore, Warren claimed that the Federal Reserve under Chair Jerome Powell initiated regulatory rollbacks, and the banks’ supervisors, particularly the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco that oversaw Silicon Valley Bank, missed or ignored key signals about the impending failure.

Furthermore, she emphasized that these regulatory rollbacks created an environment in which failure was inevitable. She also urged the inspectors general to ensure that the investigation is completely independent and free from influence from bank executives or regulators who were responsible for the actions that led to these bank failures. Warren further cautioned against any interference from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom she holds directly responsible for the regulatory and supervisory issues that contributed to the bank failures.

Warren also criticized Powell for muzzling regulators from any public mention of the regulatory failures that occurred under his watch. She said that if these reports were true, they would reveal outrageous and inappropriate interventions by Chair Powell. In an interview with NBC News, Senator Warren slammed Powell for failing at both his jobs – dealing with monetary policy and regulation. She went on to say that she doesn’t believe he should be the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Recently, Warren also blamed the failure of Silvergate Bank on crypto risks and claimed that Signature Bank collapsed because it embraced crypto clients without sufficient safeguards. The independent investigation called for by Warren could shed more light on the regulatory failures that led to the bank failures and help prevent similar occurrences in the future.