Greg Becker, former director general of Silicon Valley Bank, speaks publicly for the first time since the authorities took control of the institution on 10 March. He says the US central bank first put SVB in trouble by abruptly raising interest rates from 2022, to fight inflation.
The next day, the bank's customers withdrew $42 billion in ten hours. Two days later, demands for the withdrawal of about $100 billion more were filed, prompting the authorities to intervene and take control of SVB. "No bank could have survived a bank run of such speed and magnitude," says Becker.