One year later: Lessons learned from the March 2023 bank failures

In early March 2023, three banks failed in just a few days. These banks—Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic—were among the biggest banks to fail in U.S. history. The SVB demise triggered the largest single-day bank run in U.S. history and led to aggressive action by the Federal Reserve, FDIC, Treasury Department, and others to prevent spillovers to the rest of the U.S. banking system. One year later, what lessons can be drawn? What changes should regulators and bankers make to reduce the chances of a repeat? And what did the March 2023 incident demonstrate about the adequacy of current approaches to resolving failing banks?

On March 5, the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy and Center on Regulation and Markets (CRM) reflected on these questions, beginning with a panel on shortcomings of bank supervision, the lender of last resort function, and bank risk management practices that exacerbated the March 2023 crisis and how best to address them. A conversation followed with Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), chair of the House Financial Services Committee. The final panel focused on the weaknesses of the current approach to resolving bank failures that were exposed in March 2023 and how to remedy them. This event is a part of CRM’s Series on Financial Markets and Regulation.

Viewers joined the conversation and ask questions of the panelists by emailing [email protected] or on X/Twitter using the hashtag #BankFail.

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