My colleague John White said it best in our newsletter yesterday: the week that felt like a year. Books will be written and movies will be made about the last seven days as it was the most dramatic week in finance since the financial crisis of 2008. The good news this week was that the finance world didn’t fall apart and we had no bank failures between Monday and Friday, although First Republic needed a dramatic cash infusion. The old Silicon Valley Bank is probably the safest bank in the country right now but no buyer has been found as of yet. Below is my weekly fintech news roundup.
SVB and Signature: The big non-bailout from Fintech Nexus – The news came last Sunday night that the government would guarantee all deposits held at Silicon Valley Bank, and, oh, by the way, Signature Bank has been closed by regulators.
Big Banks swoop in to save First Republic from Fintech Nexus – To ensure we didn’t lose a fourth bank this month eleven of the largest banks in the country sent a total of $30 billion to First Republic Bank.
Mortgages, Wine and Renovations: Silicon Valley Bank’s Deep Tech Ties from The New York Times – No other bank had closer ties to tech, including fintech, than Silicon Valley Bank. Good piece on how deep those ties went.
How Goldman’s Plan to Shore Up Silicon Valley Bank Crumbled from The Wall Street Journal – While Silicon Valley Bank collapsed suddenly the seeds were sown in late February when SVB executives went to Goldman Sachs looking for advice on how to raise new capital.
Fail or sale? What could be next for stricken Credit Suisse from CNBC – While not directly related to the big US bank failures, leading Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, is struggling to survive. It needed massive support from the Swiss central bank and there has been chatter over the last couple of days that its domestic rival UBS might buy all or part of the bank.
Neobanks report a windfall of new clients in wake of SVB shutdown from American Banker – There were some fintech bright spots this week as those that serve business clients saw an uptick in new accounts. NorthOne, Mercury and Meow all added new clients at a faster rate than normal.
Tether’s Stablecoin Market Cap Now Double USDC After SVB Chaos from Decrypt – In the crypto space Tether is looking like the big winner for the week as Circle’s USDC had $3.3 billion in reserves at Silicon Valley Bank. Now USDT has roughly twice the market cap of USDC.
Stripe slashes valuation to $50 billion in new $6.5 billion funding round from CNBC – Oh yeah, Stripe raised some money. On a normal week, this would be our top story as Stripe raised a staggering amount of money, $6.5 billion, in the biggest private fintech raise ever in this country. Their valuation almost halved to $50 billion but most people think that is a win in today’s environment.
FedNow instant payments platform will be live in July, central bank says from American Banker – The Federal Reserve announced this week that their long-awaited instant payment system, FedNow, will launch in July. While a pilot program has been going since last September with 120 participants (including some fintechs), a certification program will open next month to help companies prepare for the launch.
Whether Private Or Public, The U.S. Needs A Digital Dollar from Forbes – Dave Birch ruminates on the events of the past week and makes the case for stablecoins, specifically a digital dollar, being a way to stabilize the financial system.
Every Thursday at 5pm ET the Fintech Nexus news team and a special guest discuss the news of the week in fintech. Below is the video we posted to YouTube of this week’s show. You can also listen to the show in podcast format.
