When it comes to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), there’s one clear winner: Bank of America. The Charlotte-based company is one of the largest financial institutions in the world and has seen its deposits grow by more than $15 billion as investors seek a better shelter for their finances.
The disintegration of SVB sent shockwaves throughout the world. It triggered the collapse of other banks and left many throughout the world concerned that an outright meltdown of the American banking industry might take place.
Though the situation remains tenuous, a full-on financial meltdown has yet to occur. In fact, Bank of America, which has its headquarters in North Carolina, is perhaps the biggest winner so far in the situation.
The bank has received $15 billion in deposits since SVB went under.
It is the second-largest bank in the United States and holds about $3.05 trillion in assets, making it “too big to fail,” according to even the Federal Reserve.
For investors, this means that though Bank of America isn’t as woke perhaps as a bank like SVB, at least customer’s assets are safe for the time being.
JPMorgan has also seen new investors coming in, along with Citigroup.
This doesn’t mean that the Charlotte-headquartered bank isn’t out of the woods just yet. The bank has still been impacted by SVB’s collapse and general concerns about the stability of the financial industry. Bank of America has lost on its bond portfolio, which has declined as the Fed continues to increase the interest rates.
SVB dissolved as it made what could be considered perhaps risky investments in U.S. Treasury bonds, which were increasingly worthless as the interest rate continued to rise. When most of its customers demanded the opportunity to withdraw their funds, the bank didn’t have the money to cover the requests, nor could it cash out its investments to cover depositors.
When it comes to banks, many will be surprised to know that it doesn’t completely make its money from those little fees it charges to maintain your account. Most of the money is actually generated from investing the money deposited into the bank into other avenues, like bonds and securities, in addition to providing loans. This long-term strategy is a win for the bank and often for customers, who see the return on their deposits via interest payments.
But if a bank doesn’t make solid investments or can’t cash out the bonds or other investments after requests from depositors, the bank becomes insolvent.
Hopefully, Bank of America and some of the country’s largest banks can weather this situation and get through it relatively unscathed, though the government’s decision to bail out depositors beyond the FDIC’s $250,000 threshold will likely result in more banks making risky bets believing the government will at least bail out their depositors.
If not, expect more news out of Charlotte, which is actually the second-largest financial industry city in the country and the second-largest in terms of assets.
Among the financial institutions that call Charlotte home are Truist Bank and the eastern headquarters of Wells Fargo.
For more on how the Federal Reserve is managing the interest rate and the impact of the Consumer Price Index, here.
