Most APAC fin institutions immune to US bank failure, rising rates: Moody's

Most Asia Pacific financial institutions are not exposed to the failed US banks and are not as susceptible to large losses from debt security holdings as Silicon Valley Bank was, Moody's said on Tuesday.

On March 12, US regulators closed Signature Bank, just two days after shutting Silicon Valley Bank, following mass withdrawals of customer deposits from these regional banks.

Moody's Investors Service said these events are likely to result in a tightening of liquidity in debt markets globally as investors grow wary. However, the impact will be limited for most rated financial institutions in Asia-Pacific (APAC) because of structural factors.

"Also, most APAC institutions are not exposed to the failed US banks, and only a handful of institutions has immaterial exposures. Finally, most institutions are not as susceptible to large losses from debt security holdings as Silicon Valley Bank was," Moody's said.

The US-based rating agency said rated banks in APAC structurally have stable funding and ample liquidity.

They are mostly funded with customer deposits, while their market borrowings are modest at about 16 per cent of their total assets on average.

Their business depositors are well diversified across different sectors, with no rated bank in the region being heavily exposed to technology companies. Also, APAC banks' deposits are generally not heavily concentrated on single clients.

Most banks in the region are subject to liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requirements that are aimed at ensuring banks hold ample high-quality liquid assets to get through stressed funding conditions, such as deposit runs, Moody's said.

In most systems in APAC, banks' investments in held-to-maturity (HTM) instruments are generally not substantial relative to tangible common equity, unlike the case of Silicon Valley Bank, which suffered substantial unrealized losses from its large HTM investments, the agency added.

Signature Bank, New York, which lent mostly to the crypto industry was shut down by the regulators on Sunday after there was a run on their deposits.

Besides, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank last week left many startups, tech companies, entrepreneurs and VC funds nervous and jittery. SVB, the 16th largest bank in the United States, was closed on Friday by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation which later appointed the FDIC as its receiver.

SVB was deeply entrenched in the tech startup ecosystem and the default bank for many high-flying startups.

Its abrupt fall marked one of the largest bank failures since the 2008 global financial crisis. The bank failed after clients -- many of them venture capital firms and VC-backed companies that the bank had cultivated over time -- began pulling out their deposits, creating a run on the bank.

The UK government announced on Monday that it has facilitated London-based banking major HSBC to buy the embattled UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank for 1 pound, securing the deposits of more than 3,000 customers worth around 6.7 billion pounds.