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Silicon Valley Bank was a "textbook case of mismanagement," the Federal Reserve's top banking regulator will tell lawmakers this week — one key reason for the bank's failure.

Why it matters: The Fed official is among the regulators set to appear before Congress for the first hearing related to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which sparked panic about the financial system's health.

The officials, including from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury Department, are set to appear as questions swirl about whether tougher rules and oversight could have prevented the collapse.

Details: "The picture that has emerged thus far shows SVB had inadequate risk management and internal controls that struggled to keep pace with the growth of the bank," Michael Barr, the Fed's vice chair for supervision, will tell the Senate tomorrow, according to the prepared text.

Barr is leading a review by the Fed of possible supervisory and regulatory missteps that failed to prevent the bank's failure. The results will be released by May 1.

The FDIC plans to also release a report on the deposit insurance next month that will include "policy options for consideration" around insurance coverage levels, FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg will tell Congress this week, according to the text of prepared remarks. 

As part of an emergency measure, FDIC extended deposit insurance to all depositors at Silicon Valley Bank, as well as those at failed Signature Bank — including those that exceeded the $250,000 deposit cap. 

The big picture: Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have pointed to relaxed regulations as one reason why Silicon Valley Bank's troubles flew under the radar.

"We are evaluating whether application of more stringent standards would have prompted the bank to better manage the risks that led to its failure," Barr plans to say.

"We are also assessing whether SVB would have had higher levels of capital and liquidity under those standards, and whether such higher levels of capital and liquidity would have forestalled the bank's failure or provided further resilience to the bank."

The intrigue: Barr also will lay out repeated warnings by Fed supervisors that were ignored by the bank, including a meeting with bank officials late last year where supervisors expressed "concern with the bank's interest rate risk profile."

Silicon Valley Bank's bond investments had lost significant value as interest rates rose, leaving the bank with a huge hole in its balance sheet as deposits began to flee.

What they're saying: "It is not the job of supervisors to fix the issues identified; it is the job of the bank's senior management and board of directors to fix its problems," Barr plans to say.

Worth noting: Gruenberg will also tell Congress about similar circumstances that led to the string of collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and crypto-bank Silvergate in recent weeks.

For instance, both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank had large volumes of uninsured deposits, which "creates liquidity risks that are extremely difficult to manage, particularly in today’s environment where money can flow out of institutions with incredible speed in response to news amplified through social media channels," according to Gruenberg's prepared remarks.

Gruenberg will also say that banks with assets of $100 billion or more have big implications for financial stability: "The prudential regulation of these institutions merits additional attention, particularly with respect to capital, liquidity, and interest rate risk."

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details throughout. 

Top Fed official: Silicon Valley Bank mismanagement led to failure

A congressional hearing on Silicon Valley Bank’s failure will begin on Tuesday.

Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Michael Barr appears before Congress last year. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Silicon Valley Bank

Federal Reserve

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he was delaying his coalition's judicial overhaul legislation after mass protests and a general strike that affected much of the country.

Why it matters: Israel, including its economy, has faced instability and unprecedented political and social unrest since the plan to weaken the country's Supreme Court was announced in January. 

What they're saying: “I am taking a timeout in the legislation of the judicial reform," Netanyahu said late Monday local time. 

"In order to prevent a rift in our people, I have decided to suspend the vote on the second and third reading of the legislation in the current Knesset session, in order to try and reach an understanding on the legislation during the next Knesset session," he added. 

Netanyahu said he wants to avoid a civil war and warned that Israeli society is on a dangerous collision course. 

He also said he is ready to start an immediate dialogue with the opposition in order to reach a broad consensus around the judicial overhaul plan. “We will bring a reform that will restore the balance between the different branches of government while strengthening civil liberties," Netanyahu said.

The other side: Opposition leader Yair Lapid said he is ready to start a dialogue under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog. Lapid said his goal is to reach an agreement for a constitution for Israel. 

Lapid said that if Netanyahu tries any “tricks,” he will find the people who protested in recent weeks standing against him again. But if Netanyahu is genuine, Lapid said, there will be a serious dialogue.

Benny Gantz, former Defense Minister and the leader of the opposition Blue and White party, welcomed Netanyahu’s announcement. “Better late than never," Gantz said.

“Dialogue is the right path. I am ready to arrive at the negotiation at the president’s residence with an open heart in order to reach an understanding and I call on Netanyahu to do the same," Gantz said.

Meanwhile, Herzog said in a statement that suspending the legislation was the right thing to do. 

“It is time to start a candid and serious dialogue that will calm down tensions We need to start talking now at the president’s residence in order to reach a broad consensus," he said.

Catch up quick: Netanyahu shocked Israel on Sunday when he fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who a day earlier called for the legislation's suspension, saying the plan "created an internal rift that poses a clear and immediate threat for Israel's national security."

After Gallant was fired, spontaneous demonstrations erupted across the country.

More than 100,000 Israeli protesters blocked Tel Aviv's main highway for hours Sunday night and thousands more demonstrated in front of Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem and in other cities across the country.

Protests continued into Monday, with about 100,000 people rallying against the government outside the Knesset.

State of play: In a rare move, the head of Israel's workers' union announced on Monday morning a general strike across the country until the legislation was suspended. Such a strike hadn't taken place in decades. 

As a result of the strike, Israel's international airport and kindergartens were shut down and hospitals started dealing only with emergency cases.

After Netanyahu's address later Monday, the unions called off the strike. 

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu held intense discussions with members of his coalition government, aides and family members on Sunday night, Likud officials said. Those meetings continued into Monday.

In a dramatic turn Monday afternoon, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who had threatened to resign, issued a statement stressing that he would respect any decision Netanyahu makes regarding the judicial overhaul. He also said he would work to stabilize the coalition in order to prevent the government from collapsing. Levin's announcement gave Netanyahu important backing for suspending the legislation.

Netanyahu also made a deal with far-right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who also had threatened to resign if the plan was suspended. As part of the deal, Ben-Gvir agreed to give the government until the end of the next Knesset session at the end of July to pass judicial reform based on a broad consensus, the Jewish Power party said in a statement.

Yes, but: Ben-Gvir said in a separate statement that he and Netanyahu agreed that if no agreement is reached with the opposition during the Knesset recess, the coalition will pass the legislation unilaterally.

Senior members inside the Likud are pressing Netanyahu to cancel his decision to fire Gallant. Netanyahu hasn't sent Gallant a formal letter firing him, which means the 48-hour process of the decision coming into effect hasn't started yet.

Between the lines: Netanyahu and his Likud party took a massive hit in the most recent polling by Israel's Channel 12. 

It showed that if an election was held today, Likud would only get 25 seats in the Knesset, down from its current 32 seats, and the governing coalition would get only 54 seats — 10 less than it has today. 

The opposition, meanwhile, would win 66 seats, according to the poll. 

The big picture: The leaders of some of Israel's closest allies, including President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, have in recent weeks expressed concerns about what the plan to weaken Israel's Supreme Court would mean for the country's democracy.

On Monday, the White House's press secretary said the Biden administration welcomed "Netanyahu’s announcement as an opportunity to create additional time and space for compromise."

"Compromise is precisely what we have been calling for, and we continue to strongly urge Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible," Karine Jean-Pierre said. 

"We believe that is the best path forward for Israel and all of its citizens. Democratic societies are strengthened by checks and balances, and fundamental changes to a democratic system should be pursued with the broadest possible base of popular support," she added. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Bibi suspends judicial overhaul after mass protests across Israel

The overhaul has in the past 3 months led to an unprecedented political and social crisis in Israel, and destabalized its economy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Ronen Zvulun/AFP via Getty Images

Israel

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

World

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Over the last couple of weeks, cash crowded into U.S. money market funds at the fastest clip since the COVID crisis hit.

Why it matters: The flow of dollars to money market funds for safekeeping highlights the anxiety that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank introduced into the financial system.

State of play: The overwhelming majority went into funds that invest in only the safest U.S. government securities, such as short-term Treasury bills and overnight loans to the Federal Reserve, known as "reverse repos."

"This suggests institutional deposits are leaving the U.S. banking system," wrote analysts with Moody's, referencing the large deposits controlled by corporations and small businesses that are not explicitly insured by the FDIC, due to their size.

Such accounts have appeared especially flighty since the crisis broke out.

Meanwhile: Some of the cash moving into money market funds also comes from the sales of stocks and bonds that picked up amid the banking jitters.

For example: About $10 billion flowed out of equity and bond mutual funds in recent weeks.

Between the lines: While government-bond-focused money market mutual funds are not explicitly guaranteed by the government, they can conceivably be considered safer than banks, since they use investors' cash to buy some of the most highly rated, short-term, and easy-to-trade investments on Earth.

The concern about banks is that, like Silicon Valley Bank, they invested in longer-term government bonds that can generate losses if they're forced to be sold to come up with cash for depositors.

Oh, and the yields investors earn for stashing cash in money market funds are now actually quite high — more than 4% in some cases — compared to bank deposits (now yielding roughly 0.35%, the FDIC says).

The bottom line: "Not only are money market funds offering superior yields, but they also look safer than bank uninsured deposits," wrote JPMorgan analysts in a note last week.

Money is moving out of the banking system

Banking

Inflows into U.S. money market mutal funds

Vitals

Axios Vitals

Social media companies are increasingly being blamed for historically high rates of depression, suicidality and other mental health issues in youths. And now, states and local governments are increasingly pursuing legislation and legal action.

Driving the news: Utah just passed a law limiting social media for minors and school districts in Seattle and San Mateo County, California, are suing leading platforms, charging they're delivering harmful content to kids. 

It comes just as Congress ratcheted up pressure for a ban on TikTok for, among other things, the harmful impact it's had on kids. 

The Biden administration's surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, weighed in last month, telling CNN that age 13 is "too early" for kids to join social media.

"Multiple juries are in. They're all reaching the same conclusion," Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University Stern School of Business told the Financial Times. "When social media or high-speed internet came in, [studies] all find the same story which is mental health plummets, especially for girls." 

Multiple studies — including some of the companies' own internal research —have linked social media use with increased depression among teens.

A December report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate which focused on TikTok found the platform began recommending eating disorder and self-harm content to new teen accounts within eight minutes of use.

Research published by the American Psychological Association last month found teens and young adults who cut social media use by 50% for a few weeks saw significant improvement in how they felt about both their weight and their overall appearance compared with their peers.

The big picture: There are nearly 150 product liability lawsuits filed in the U.S. against the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, per the Financial Times.

A growing number of school districts and municipalities are among those filing suit, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson reported.  

Among them, the San Mateo County School Board last week expanded an existing suit against social media companies to include Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Bloomberg reported. Bucks County, Pennsylvania, filed its own lawsuit in mid-March, seeking financial damages for rising mental health costs for young people, the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.

Arkansas and Texas are also eyeing laws like Utah's limiting social media use. California previously passed a law requiring online services to install certain safeguards for users under 18, the New York Times reported.

Members of Congress have promised further regulation of social media companies, and last month, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) introduced a bill to ban social media use for kids younger than 16.

Many of the suits are built around concern about the way platforms feed targeted content to keep kids online longer, fueling negative self-image, exposing them to self-harm content and enabling bullying.

Yes, but: Oftentimes, concerns over the harms of social media seem designed to generate headlines, Wired writes, and may obscure other factors bothering kids, including the role of the pandemic and the bitterly partisan national political debate.

"Talking about the harms platforms can have on children often feels less like genuine concern and more like an attempt to capture attention by focusing on some of the most salient fears for American parents," per Wired's Vittoria Elliott. 

Civil liberties and tech advocates have raised an alarm that important privacy concerns could be tossed aside amid efforts to require identity and age verification as part of new restrictions, both The Guardian and Vox reported.

And some research has found that some use of social media benefits teens' social connections, NPR reports.

What we're watching: How social media companies will seek to deflect some of the heat by adopting more controls or restrictions on youths' time online — and whether we'll be able to measure how much any single effort to curb their use will impact anxiety, depression and thoughts of self-harm in kids.

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat with someone at 988lifeline.org. En Español.

linked social media use with increases in depression

ban social media use for kids younger than 16

Pushback grows over mental health impacts of social media

Social media companies are increasingly coming under fire for their role in fueling an epidemic of mental health crises among teens and children that have resulted in historically high rates of poor mental health, depression and suicidality.

Illustration of a hand reaching up out of a pile of notification icons with flames

Axios

Monday's top stories

Top Fed official: Silicon Valley Bank mismanagement led to failure

Bibi suspends judicial overhaul after mass protests across Israel

Money is moving out of the banking system

Pushback grows over mental health impacts of social media

AI changes the software-making game

Americans hooked on Chinese apps

The Biden/Trump split screen could be a preview of '24

Southeast faces severe flooding risk as more tornadoes threaten Mississippi

First Citizens agrees to buy Silicon Valley Bank

Court filings: Twitter says parts of source code were leaked online