FDIC gives Signature Bank clients a week to withdraw funds

FDIC informed Signature Bank that clients with digital assets have been given the opportunity to close their accounts and withdraw their funds by April 5. Reuters reports.

“If clients do not do this, we will mail checks to the address on file,” the FDIC spokesperson said.

Deposits of crypto firms ended up outside the scope of the March 19 deal to sell the financial institution to Flagstar Bank, a unit of NYCB. Their amount totals $4 billion (~4.5% of the total).

Under the agreement the buyer received Signature Bank’s assets worth $38.4 billion. They include a loan portfolio of $12.9 billion with a discount of $2.7 billion.

As of the latest reporting date, Signature Bank’s assets total $110.4 billion (including deposits of $88.6 billion). The FDIC will have about $60 billion at its disposal.

According to Reuters, the Corporation asked banks interested in acquiring Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank to refrain from any engagement with cryptocurrencies. A FDIC spokesperson, citing earlier comments by its head Martin Gruenberg, said such assumptions are incorrect. Previously, in a similar vein, said employees of the NYDFS.

Amid the events, former U.S. Representative Barney Frank stated that regulators have signaled to banks that cryptocurrencies are toxic.

Subsequently, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, at hearings of the Senate Finance Committee, named the bank’s friendly stance toward digital assets as a cause of Signature Bank’s collapse.

Earlier, the IMF warned about the negative impact of cryptocurrencies on banks.

Circle and Coinbase, the issuers of the USDC stablecoin, said that problems in the banking sector led to uncertainty in the digital-asset market.