Three US banks have collapsed in the past two months. On Tuesday, former executives from two of those firms went before Congress to explain.
Former executives from Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank testified before the Senate Banking Committee. Lawmakers told them their firms grew too fast and they failed to protect themselves against the risks. The chair, Sherrod Brown, says the lenders were "fatally mismanaged."
Brown said, "When you put other people's money and our broader economy at risk, there must be accountability for that level of mismanagement."
Greg Becker, the former CEO of SVB Financial Group, responded, "In the face of these unprecedented events, the leadership team and I made the best decisions we could with the facts and forecasts available to us at the time."
Becker added that he is "truly sorry" for the collapse and noted that officials at the Federal Reserve sent a message that inflation would only be "transitory." However, the officials saw price hikes persist and have raised interest rates ten consecutive times since last year.
The executives said rumors about the firms' health spread quickly online, leading to bank runs. However, lawmakers say they ignored warnings in the face of "glaring risks."