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The demise of the tech start-up lender is symptomatic of the economic strains caused by rapidly rising interest rates.
By Arun SAI, Senior Multi Asset Strategist Pictet Asset Management
The US bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is a high-profile casualty of central banks' battle against inflation. Its demise is a reminder that interest rate hikes have a nasty habit of operating with a lag. Yet SVB's collapse doesn't represent a systemic risk. The bank was in a uniquely precarious position. It was vulnerable on two fronts in particular. First, it was far less diversified than many of its global peers. SVB was a specialist lender whose deposit base was almost entirely composed of early stage technology companies - firms that had enjoyed substantial...
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