OKLAHOMA CITY — Although two banks on the West Coast and one on the East Coast went belly up recently, Oklahoma’s financial institutions are on sound footing, banking officials said Monday.
The failure last Friday of California’s Silicon Valley Bank – a lender to technology startups – was the second-largest bank in U.S. history to collapse and was the biggest bank failure in the United States since 2008.
Just two days later, on Sunday, New York-based Signature Bank was shut down by regulators, becoming the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history – right behind SVB.
And Silvergate, a California-based bank that made loans to cryptocurrency companies, announced March 8 that it would cease operations and liquidate its assets.
The Oklahoma Bankers Association has been in touch with a number of sources in Washington, including the regulators, who are closely monitoring the situation, “and they are confident this failure is an idiosyncratic event — and there’s no indication of systemic or liquidity issues,” OBA President and CEO Adrian Beverage said.
“Oklahoma banks are well-capitalized and well-managed, and the State Banking Department is very confident in our Oklahoma banking system,” State Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson said.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen echoed Thompson’s words on a national scale Friday. “I have full confidence in banking regulators to take appropriate actions in response,” she said. “The banking system remains resilient, and regulators have effective tools to address this type of event.”
“The Oklahoma Bankers Association will continue to have open lines of discussion with state and federal regulators regarding this situation,” Beverage said. “We are beyond confident, however, the Silicon Valley Bank issue is an extremely isolated incident in California and has little to no direct impact on banks here in Oklahoma.”