Elizabeth Warren: 'We know who's responsible' for startling SVB implosion

It's no secret what caused the sudden implosion of the once-mighty Silicon Valley Bank, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote Monday in a New York Times op-ed. "We know who is responsible," she declared.

The name of a key person behind the mess starts with a "T" — but he was backed by members of both parties who worked to weaken bank regulations aimed at protecting customers and the nation, Warren argued.

Lawmakers, with a massive push from bank lobbyists, did their best to dismantle what they could of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted after the 2008 financial crisis to avoid a repeat of that disaster, Warren noted. "With support from both parties, President Donald Trump signed a law to roll back critical parts" of the law. "Regulators, including Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, then made a bad situation worse, letting financial institutions load up on risk," she added.

Warren warned at the time that Washington was "about to make it easier for the banks to run up risk, make it easier to put our constituents at risk, make it easier to put American families in danger."

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On Friday, executives of SVB were "busy paying out congratulatory bonuses hours before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation rushed in to take over their failing institution" — leaving countless businesses with accounts "alarmed that they wouldn’t be able to pay their bills and employees," Warren continued. (SVB CEO Greg Becker, who earned $9.9 million in compensation last year dumped some $3.6 million in stock just days before the bank imploded, Bloomberg reported.)

Federal regulators have announced they would ensure that all deposits at SVB and Signature — an affected bank dissolved by officials Sunday — would be completely repaid.

But Warren's op ed appeared as financial fallout infecting other banks continued to spiral. San Francisco's First Republic Bank stocks plunged some 64% Monday — after dropping 33% last week — and shares at other major banks were down significantly.

Banking laws must tightened again, banks more carefully regulated, and millions of dollars in compensation to executives of failed banks clawed back, urged Warren.

Now is the time for Washington to "act quickly to prevent the next crisis," she wrote.