KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Silicon Valley Bank was best known for its work with startups and venture capitalists.
So, the average person might not feel the direct pain of its collapse — but they may feel the ripples.
There's still a lot of questions around the collapse of SVB.
However, Jackie Reses, CEO of Lead Bank, says at least in Kansas City, things are looking alright.
"We felt really good about the health and vibrancy of our customers," Reses said.
Ruben Alonso, the CEO of AltCap, said the Kansas City area doesn't place a big emphasis on tech startups, so it's not feeling the direct impact of SVB's collapse.
"At the end of the day, we're gonna be pretty insulated from this in our region in Kansas City given just who Silicon Valley Bank served and the kind of businesses they served," Alonso said.
Both say our local financial institutions are strong, but that we may still see the ripple effects of SVB's closure as some banks across the country experiences similar, but not identical challenges of their own.
"Hopefully that you know, the contagion is going to be contained here, controlled here, and we're not going to see additional banks fail, but it's hard to tell right now," Alonso said.
It's also important to remember that as SVB grew bigger, some experts say it took big risks that uniquely left it open to collapse when interest rates were raised.
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