Gov. Ron DeSantis is speaking out amid the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
DeSantis, appearing on the Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, expressed confidence that the issues the California financial institution is experiencing won’t reach Florida banks, amid a series of other insights about what led the bank to its current peril.
“So I don’t have any specific information about any Florida Bank similar to Silicon Valley Bank. And hopefully that that remains the case,” DeSantis said, before offering some speculation about philosophical reasons the bank is in turmoil.
“I mean, this bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff. I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission,” DeSantis contended.
Indeed, the bank did have Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives, but a more proximate reason for the bank run that led to FDIC receivership may be its heavy investment in 10-year bonds with low interest rates combined with the needs for liquidity from its high-dollar account venture capital clients.
DeSantis did not address the bank’s investment strategy, however.
“I also look at it and say we have such a morass of federal regulations. We have a massive federal bureaucracy and yet they never seem to be able to be there when we, we need them to be able to prevent something like this,” DeSantis said, though it’s unclear what he would have had the federal government do to stop this from happening.
“And so we’ll see what they do going into tomorrow. But I think it’s just very disappointing. Kind of reminds me of stuff that we saw in the financial crisis or Bernie Madoff where you had warning signs and yet the government that this is supposed to be their job and they always seem to whiff when it counts.”
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