Davis Polk partner and Financial Institutions practice co-head Margaret Tahyar was quoted in American Banker and Politico discussing the findings from the Federal Reserve’s preliminary report of the 2023 Silicon Valley Bank failure.

In American Banker, Margaret said the review plays an important role in ensuring that the correct policy changes are being made in response to Silicon Valley Bank’s failure.

“If we’re going to make changes in regulations or in supervisory culture, we have to have an accurate sense of the root cause; otherwise, we won’t know how to make the right changes,” she said. “If you think of it in medical terms, you need to diagnose the right disease to find the treatment.”

She noted that those in and around the banking industry should withhold judgement about the report’s conclusions until they see the full text.

“The thing to know is: it’s preliminary,” she said. “There’s more to come.”

Margaret told Politico, “The key value in this report is that it provides a better root cause about why the supervisory staff did not act even though it was aware of the problems by March 2022. To fix a problem, [one] needs an accurate sense of what caused it.” 

She added that the investigation has been done with “time and thoughtfulness.”

“Bowman contests prior Fed report blaming Trump-era regulator for SVB collapse,” Politico (September 18, 2026) (subscription required)

“Bowman calls for supervisory reform after preliminary SVB report,” American Banker (September 18, 2026) (subscription required)

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