Warren Buffett said people shouldn’t panic about the banking industry or the safety of deposits at US banks, despite the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
The billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said that while more banks would “fail,” the industry’s recent woes were nothing like people who sparked the 2008 global financial crisis.
“People shouldn’t worry about losing money and deposits they’ve in an American bank, however the message has develop into very vague,” Buffett, 92, told CNBC.
“There’s no need to turn a silly managerial decision right into a panic among the many people of the US over something they should not be afraid of,” he added.
Berkshire’s stock portfolio includes several banks, including a $34.2 billion stake in Bank of America at year-end. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate also owns dozens of corporations, including BNSF Railroad and Geico Insurance.
The Silicon Valley bank, which had an unusually great amount of uninsured deposits, collapsed on March 10 after an unlucky rate of interest bet caused large investment losses and a capital shortfall, causing banks to panic.
Signature Bank collapsed two days later after betting on cryptocurrency deposits.
![Warren Buffett](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009476492.jpg?w=1024)
![Silicon Valley bank headquarters](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009439317.jpg?w=1024)
By March 19, two other near-failure banks had been bailed out, with First Republic Bank receiving a $30 billion deposit injection from other banks and Credit Suisse selling off to UBS.
Buffett says banks have “mismanaged” assets and liabilities for a very long time, and “it bites them hard from time to time.”
He said bank directors should make sure that top management is held accountable for mistakes that hurt shareholders.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures deposits up to no less than $250,000 per depositor to an FDIC insured bank.
Buffett also said he would bet $1 million that no American depositor would lose money due to a bank failure next yr.
He proposed that if someone bet the opposite way, the loser would donate a complete of $2 million to charity.
“It’s a tough offer,” he said.
Buffett spoke from Tokyo, where he visited five large Japanese malls wherein Berkshire invests.