This week, the go-to bank for US tech startups came rapidly unglued（fail suddenly or completely迅速瓦解）, leaving its high-powered customers （高级客户）and investorsin limbo.（in a situationwhere you do not knowwhat will happenor when something will happen）

美国科技初创企业的首选银行迅速瓦解，使其高级客户和投资者陷入困境。

Silicon Valley Bank, facing a sudden bank run(银行挤兑：a period when many people take their money out of a bank because they are afraid the bank will lose it or go out of business)and capital crisis（资本危机）, collapsed Friday morning and was taken over （接管）by federal regulators（联邦监管机构）.

(相关资料图)

It was the largest failure of a US bank since Washington Mutual （华盛顿互惠银行）in 2008.

Here’s what we know about the bank’s downfall（崩溃：suddendestructionof a person, organization, or governmentand theirlossof power, money, or health）, and what might come next.

What is SVB?

Founded in 1983, SVB specialized in（专注于）banking for tech startups. It provided financing for （提供融资支持）almost half of US venture-backed（风险投资支持）technology and health care companies.（医疗保险公司）

While relatively unknown（相对不知名）outside of Silicon Valley, SVB was among the top 20 American commercial banks, with $209 billion in total assets （总资产）at the end of last year, according to the FDIC.（Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation美国联邦存款保险公司，是一个在大萧条时期由美国联邦政府创办、为商业银行储蓄客户提供存款保险的公司。目前为每一银行每一存款人普通账户最高保险额一般为25万美元）

Why did it fail?

In short（简而言之）, SVB encountered a classic run on the bank（遭遇银行挤兑）

The longer version is a bit more complicated.

Several forces collided to（相互碰撞）take down the banker（导致银行崩溃）.

First, there was the Federal Reserve（美联储，履行美国的中央银行的职责）, which began raising interest rates a year ago to tame inflation（抑制通货膨胀）. 

通货膨胀是指货币供给大于货币实际需求，货币的购买力下降，从而使得一段时间内物价持续、普遍地上涨，加息会使人们的储蓄意愿增强，市场上资金减少，就会减轻通货膨胀

The Fed moved aggressively, and higher borrowing costs （高借款成本）sapped（使衰竭） the momentum of tech stocks that had benefited SVB.

加息一般是双向加息，存款利率提高的同时，借款利率会上升，高借款成本影响了科技股的势头

Higher interest rates also eroded（侵蚀）the value of long-term bonds（侵蚀长期债券的价值）that SVB and other banks gobbled up（狼吞虎咽，大量购买）during the era of ultra-low, near-zero interest rates. （近0利率时期）SVB’s $21 billion bond portfolio was yielding（产生收益，eg：high-rate deposit accounts yield good returens）an average of 1.79% — the current 10-year Treasury yield is about 3.9%.

债券交易价格会受到供需关系的影响，加息导致对债券的需求减少，价格下跌，债券的到期价格是固定的（票面价格和票面利率固定），购买的成本减少，会导致到期收益率提高。

At the same time, venture capital（风险投资） began drying up（枯竭）, forcing startups to draw down funds held by SVB（提取由SVB持有的资金）. So the bank was sitting on a mountain of unrealized losses in bonds（未到期的债券损失）just as（正当...的时候） the pace of customer withdrawals was escalating.（取款速度加快）

风险投资枯竭→迫使初创公司开始取款→SVB账上现金不够→开始亏损出售债券→发行股票融资失败→投资者大量抛售股票，单日暴跌60%

The panic takes root…（恐慌蔓延）

On Wednesday, SVB announced it had sold a bunch of securities（一堆证券）at a loss, and that it would also sell $2.25 billion in new shares（新股）to shore up its balance sheet. （支撑资产负债表）That triggered a panic among key venture capital firms, who reportedly advised companies to withdraw their money from the bank.

The bank’s stock began plummeting（暴跌）Thursday morning and by the afternoon it was dragging other bank shares down with it as investors began to fear a repeat of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

By Friday morning, trading in SVB shares was halted（暂停）and it had abandoned efforts to quickly raise capital or find a buyer.（放弃快速筹集资本或寻找买家的努力）California regulators intervened, shutting the bank down and placing it in receivership（破产管理接管）under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Contagion（蔓延） fears subside（消退）

Despite initial panic on Wall Street, analysts said SVB’s collapse is unlikely to set off（触发） the kind of domino effect（多米诺效应）that gripped the banking industry（席卷金融业）during the financial crisis.

“The system is as well-capitalized and liquid（资本充足&流动性好） as it has ever been,” Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi said. “The banks that are now in trouble are much too small to be a meaningful threat to the broader system.”

No later than Monday morning, all insured depositors（受保护存款人）will have full access to their insured deposits, according to the FDIC. It will pay uninsured depositors an “advance dividend（预付股息） within the next week.”

What’s next?

So, while a broader contagion is unlikely, smaller banks that are disproportionately （不成比例地）tied to cash-strappedindustries（现金紧缺行业） like tech and crypto may bein for（免不了遭受） a rough ride(艰难时刻), according to Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.

“Everyone on Wall Street knew that the Fed’s rate-hiking campaign would eventually break something, and right now that is taking down small banks,” Moya said on Friday.

The FDIC typically sells a failed bank’s assets to other banks, using the proceeds（收益）to repay depositors whose funds weren’t insured.

A buyer could still emerge for SVB, though it’s far from guaranteed.

原文地址：https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/11/business/svb-bank-collapse-explainer-timeline/index.html