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Biden tries to reassure Americans ‘banks are safe’
President Joe Biden addressed the nation on Monday morning.
LOS ANGELES - President Joe Biden addressed the nation Monday morning and said Americans will have full access to their money and can rest assured the banking system is safe.
People have had mixed reactions but based on what FOX 11 saw on the streets of Los Angeles, people are somewhat comforted.
While First Republic Bank is not one of the failed banks, it has a similar profile to smaller regional banks. Customers have been lining up to take out their money, including on Saturday in the rain. On Monday morning, customers lined up hours before opening and bank employees were there early to let them in.
First Republic says it’s received additional liquidity from the Federal Reserve and J.P. Morgan to make sure it’s protected but still, its stock along with many other smaller banks has tumbled.
The fallout comes following the swift collapse of two banks, Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank. SVB became one of the country’s 20 largest banks mostly by lending money to tech start-ups. Their problems started in 2021 when their financial group holdings were hit hard by the aggressive interest rate hikes to fight inflation and their value dropped dramatically — causing depositors to panic and withdraw their funds.
This is considered the largest bank failure in the U.S. since 2008.
President Biden tried to calm fears and assured Americans who have deposited money in those banks that they will get it all, saying this will not come from taxpayers' pockets.
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President Biden said the government has set aside $25 billion to offset any losses and investors will lose their money because that is capitalism.
He also threw some shade at former President Donald Trump. He claimed Trump rolled back some restrictions set after the 2008 crisis that may have prevented something like this from happening again.
Bidden added his administration will look at ways to reinforce those restrictions.