Banking Resolution

Cases

The resolution framework, applied. Each case reconstructs a bank failure from the official record: the determination, the decision, the instruments affected and what followed. The cover of each case shows which creditor layers actually bore the losses.

2023GBSilicon Valley Bank UKWhen its US parent failed, the Bank of England resolved Silicon Valley Bank UK over a weekend, transferring it to HSBC for £1 — the first use of the UK's resolution transfer powers on a live retail-facing bank since the regime was built.2023CHCredit SuisseCredit Suisse was not resolved: Swiss authorities engineered its takeover by UBS over a weekend, ordering the full write-down of roughly CHF 16bn of AT1 instruments while shareholders retained value — a sequencing that forced EU authorities to reaffirm the creditor hierarchy in resolution.2022ATSberbank EuropeSanctions after Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a run on Sberbank's European arm; the SRB used its moratorium power for the first time, then resolved the Croatian and Slovenian subsidiaries by sale while the Austrian parent went into insolvency.2019LVPNB BankaAn on-site inspection found Latvia's PNB Banka balance-sheet insolvent; the ECB declared it failing, the SRB found no public interest in resolution, and a Latvian court opened insolvency proceedings.2018LVABLV BankA US anti-money-laundering measure triggered a fatal deposit run on Latvia's ABLV Bank; the ECB declared it failing and the SRB found resolution not in the public interest, leaving the bank to wind itself up under Latvian law.2017ITVeneto Banca and Banca Popolare di VicenzaTwo weeks after Banco Popular, the SRB decided that the failure of two mid-sized Venetian banks did not meet the public interest test — sending them into Italian liquidation, with their performing businesses sold to Intesa Sanpaolo alongside state support.2017ESBanco PopularBanco Popular Español was the first — and so far only — bank fully resolved by the Single Resolution Board: its capital instruments were written down or converted overnight and the bank was sold to Banco Santander for one euro, with no public funds.