The collapse of the California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) dominated most sessions and workshops of the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh.
The repercussions of SVB’s recent bankruptcy caused shock and confusion worldwide, especially for economies that fear that the crisis will spillover to their financial institutions.
Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan told conference attendees that the incident offers lessons for regulators, investors, and financial institutions.
“Effective implementation of macro-prudential measures contributes to the resilience of the financial system against shocks of this kind,” said Al-Jadaan.
Officials and experts participating in the conference stressed the importance of governments taking all precautions to avoid scenarios of bankruptcy like what happened to the SVB.
They indicated that failure of major banks is exacerbated by waves of panic at the global level from the possibility of contagion.
International financiers said that SVB’s bankruptcy is the largest collapse of an international bank since the 2008 financial crisis.
SVB was the 16th-largest bank in the United States and was the largest bank by deposits in Silicon Valley. Its assets amounted to $200 billion.
Experts at the conference called for financial institutions worldwide to learn from the SVB crisis.
They also stressed that the Saudi government has a solid banking system and financial solvency that protects it from the fallout of SVB’s collapse.
