Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are likely aware of the turmoil that has been roiling the US banks over the past fortnight.
It all started when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed suddenly on 10 March in just 48 hours as the 40-year-old bank suffered a run on its deposits.
Spooked by this event, customers started to rapidly pull funds from Signature Bank too, making it the third-largest bank collapse in US history and the next domino to fall.
Barely a week later, Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), a 167-year-old Swiss bank, saw itself being bought over by rival UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS) for US$3.2 billion.
Due to these events, deposits at smaller US banks have plunged by a record as investors remain jittery.
The Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, has even gone on record to warn that a credit crunch, triggered by panic, fear and worry, may negatively impact the economy and slow it down for years....