Following the bank failures of 2023, what should be done to make the financial system safe? We draw two key lessons from the recent episode: first, a banking system that relies heavily on supervisory discretion is unlikely to be resilient; second, authorities with emergency powers to bail out...

Starting in March 2023, depositor runs quickly led to the failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank. In the wake of higher interest rates, uninsured depositors of these banks had lost confidence in their business model of taking in deposits and investing the...