Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams rejected the idea that the central bank’s aggressive interest-rate increases precipitated recent financial strains highlighted by recent banking failures.
“I personally don’t think it was the case that the pace of rate increases was really behind the issues at the two banks back in March,” he said Monday during a moderated discussion organized by the Economics Review at New York University. “I think it’s well understood there were some pretty idiosyncratic specific issues with those institutions.”
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last month was the second largest in U.S. history. SVB and Signature Bank were taken over by regulators after a run on their deposits.
