On Friday, Californian bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis.  In a sudden collapse that shocked financial markets, it left billions of dollars belonging to companies and investors stranded. 

SVB took deposits from and made loans to companies in the heartland of America’s tech sector.  The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is now acting as a receiver. The FDIC is an independent government agency that insures bank deposits and oversees financial institutions, which means it will liquidate the bank’s assets to pay back its customers, including depositors and creditors.

What happened to SVB and is this a one-off or a signal that there are more financial crashes to come?  The immediate development was the announcement by SVB that it had sold at a loss a bunch of securities it had invested in and that it would have to sell $2.25…