After NY bank fails, Hochul reassures customers

ALBANY, New York (WWNY) - With a New York bank now in the hands of state regulators, Governor Kathy Hochul took time Monday to reassure people their money is protected.

Signature Bank, a commercial bank with a Manhattan office, is the third largest failure in U.S. banking history, and it comes 2 days after authorities shuttered Silicon Valley Bank in California.

Essentially, customers wanted their money and the banks’ portfolios didn’t provide them with the ability to manage the demand.

Over the weekend, the federal government stepped in and provided a backstop, saying customers will be made whole and “no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.

“To give out the message to all depositors that their deposit even above the $250,000 limit, which is in the law with FDIC protections, that those above that would also be protected. And what this did is it sent a ripple across the country that deposits would be protected,” said Hochul.

While customers are protected, officials said shareholders of each bank would not be protected, and that senior management members of both banks have been removed.