Silicon Valley Bank: the multiple warnings that were missed

Customers queue outside an SVB branch during the crisis last month. Weeks later, US regulators are still reckoning with the damage wrought © FT montage/Bloomberg

To those caught in its path, the cycle of rumour and panic that destroyed Silicon Valley Bank struck as violently as a tornado.

“The speed of the world has changed,” said Sam Altman, the technology executive behind the artificial intelligence phenomenon ChatGPT, shortly after a historic bank run in which customers tried to withdraw at least one-quarter of their deposits in just over 24 hours. “People talk fast,” he added. “People move money fast.”