Saturday, March 18, 2023

SVB Bankruptcy: Bob Rubin and Larry Summers


"The Committee to Save the World" eliminated bank protections in the late 1990's.  Two of the three men pictured on the cover of Time are connected to Silicon Valley Bank's failure, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers.  

Summers was front and center calling for SVB depositors to be made whole.  He did not disclose his advisor role with NYCA Partners, a venture capital and advisory firm focusing on financial technology.  Was Larry Summers arguing his personal financial book or that of NYCA in his calls to save depositors?

Bob Rubin's Centerview Partners has been hired by bankrupt SVB for investment banking services.  It's ironic that Rubin might help clean up a mess he created decades ago by loosening bank regulations.

An opinion piece noted:

SVB’s meteoric rise and fall serves as a reminder that many of the guardrails erected after the last crisis have since been dismantled – at the behest of banks like SVB, and with the help of lawmakers from both parties beholden to entrenched finance and tech lobbies.

Former Clinton Labor Secretary used SVB's bankruptcy as a history lesson.  He omitted his former Cabinet peers Bob Rubin and Larry Summers in his assessment.  To me that's part of the deeper story.

Update 3-22-23:  Lazard is advising First Republic Bank in the midst of the current banking crisis.  Peter Orszag is CEO of Lazard's Financial Advisory.