SYDNEY/NEW YORK - US regulators may have stemmed a banking crisis by guaranteeing deposits of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), but some experts warn that the move has encouraged bad investor behaviour.
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by guaranteeing that depositors would lose no money, the authorities have again raised the question of moral hazard – the removal of people’s incentive to guard against financial risk.
“This is a bailout and a major change of the way in which the US system was built, and its incentives,” said Mr Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “The cost will be passed on to everyone who uses banking services.”
He added: “If all bank deposits are now insured, why do you need banks?”
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“If the Fed is now backstopping anyone facing asset/rates pain, then they are de facto allowing a massive easing of financial conditions as well as soaring moral hazard,” Rabobank strategists Michael Every and Ben Picton wrote in a note to clients.
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in doing so, “they took another step towards demonstrating that they are unwilling to allow free markets to sort themselves out”, said Toronto-based independent proprietary trader Kevin Muir.
Some analysts said the US actions were not a bailout, as shareholders and unsecured debt holders of SVB would not be covered.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/ex...svb-crisis