Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) asked the witnesses if they believed it’s “a running joke” in the banking community that the federal government will bail them out in times of trouble, to which former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Gregory Becker said he does not “believe that’s the case.”
“Really? Because every bank you seemingly that crashed, it’s like, ‘We can bail him out. This one crashed, we’ll bail them out,’” Fetterman said. “So far, everything’s been true. So, doesn’t it feel that now if a bank really believed that they wouldn’t be bailed out, now after bailing them out, these couple of bailouts, they are going to.”
“Do you believe that that is not outrageous that, no matter how deplorable your performance is, you are made as whole and all by … taxpapers (sic),” the Pennsylvania senator continued. “So what do yous (sic) believe?”