Full coverage: Banking

Since it was founded in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland has advanced €3.5bn to 55,000 Irish SMEs. Over that time, its model has evolved and its remit expanded. CEO June Butler talks about the journey and reveals what is coming next.

While SVB had a very limited presence here, the worry is not only the contagion across the banking sector but the trickle-down effect the withdrawal of tech’s biggest bank will have on wider investors, who were already jittery.

Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse had their own problems. But there is a possibility that the banking sector as a whole simply cannot handle high interest rates.

Granted, Credit Suisse was a bad bank. But it's unsettling to see any bank with a thick capital cushion going to the wall.

Silicon Valley Bank's collapse has been noted by Irish bank shareholders. But that doesn't mean the banks are at risk.

I went to Silicon Valley to meet with top-tier tech companies. As the meetings progressed, its main bank collapsed. Beyond the Bay Area’s travails, the impact of SVB’s failure on monetary policy in the near term may be significant.

The warning signs were there, yet very smart people entrusted their companies to SVB. It would seem to make no sense. Why is this happening?

In the last two years, AIB has more than doubled and Bank of Ireland has more than tripled in value. First-half results now available for both institutions tell the story.

The decision to cut costs by removing cash services from 70 AIB branches was the logical decision for a normal publicly-listed company. But the majority state-owned bank isn't one.

The tracker scandal was not an outlier for AIB. As the sad tale of the Belfry Funds shows, the bank has repeatedly put its own interests above those of its customers.