Shearman & Sterling Financial Restructuring & Insolvency partner Mark Shapiro told Bloomberg News on March 15 that the U.S. government has taken prompt and necessary steps to safeguard the country’s financial system following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

“The most important thing that the government did was do something early, and that was not something that they did during the Lehman crisis in 2008,” Mark said. “I call Janet Yellin, the Super Woman of the moment because she decided, with others in the government, that it made sense to step up to the plate quickly.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took control of the assets of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday. The failure of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based bank is the second-largest in U.S. history, and the largest since the financial crisis of 2008.

“They’ve described this as a non-taxpayer bailout,” Mark added. “[The government] came out with a statement yesterday in which they said that not only is the FDIC backing the banks but the full faith and credit of the United States government was backing the banks. You couldn’t have a safer instrument than any other bank in the country.”
Mark Shapiro is a Partner and Chairman of the Financial Restructuring & Insolvency group in New York and a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.