"The messaging from the Federal Reserve was that interest rates would remain low and that the inflation that was starting to bubble up would only be 'transitory,'" Becker said in written testimony prepared for a US Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday focused on Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (OTC: SBNY ), both of which were seized by regulators in March. "Indeed, between the start of 2020 and the end of 2021, banks collectively purchased nearly $2.3 trillion of investment securities in this low-yield environment created by the Federal Reserve." Silicon Valley Bank catered to the technology-startup ecosystem, and its heavy focus on the sector combined with a portfolio of long-dated bonds that lost value as interest rates climbed made it particularly susceptible to the bank run that prompted regulators to seize the lender. Its failure touched off a number of other bank runs, leading to the seizure of Signature Bank days later and the eventual collapse of First Republic Bank (OTC: FRCB ) as well.