Warren Buffett believes there will be more bank failures in the future, but depositors shouldn’t worry. “We’re not over bank failures, but depositors haven’t had a crisis,” the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO told CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box” Wednesday from Tokyo. “Banks go bust. But depositors aren’t going to be hurt.” Last month, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed — respectively, the second and third biggest bank failures in American history. Regulators responded by providing an additional funding facility and backstopping all deposits in the failed lenders. The “Oracle of Omaha” said some of the “dumb” things that banks do periodically became uncovered during this period, including having mismatched assets and liabilities as well as questionable accounting. “Bankers have been tempted to do that forever,” Buffett said. “Accounting procedures have driven some bankers to do some things that have helped their current earnings a little bit and caused the recurring temptation to get a little bit bigger spread on record, a little more than earnings.”
Buffett said that some bankers would continue this behavior, putting some stock shareholders at risk. The 92-year-old investor, however, said there was unnecessary fear and panic about depositors losing their money since the system is designed to safeguard them all. “The costs of the [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] are borne by the banks. Banks have never cost the federal government a dime. The public doesn’t understand that,” said Buffett. “Nobody is going to lose money on a deposit in a U.S. bank. It’s not going to happen … you don’t need to turn a dumb decision by managers into a panicking the whole citizenry of the United States about something they don’t need to be panicked about.” He stressed that it’s crucial that banks retain the public’s confidence, and they can lose that confidence in seconds, as highlighted in the recent blowup.
