In SVB’s case, the decision was made to classify its government bond holdings as long-term assets that would be held until maturity and therefore could be booked at their face value. As a result, billions in U.S. government bonds looked good on SVB’s books so long as the bonds did not have to be sold into the market at current cash value to pay depositors who wanted their money back.
A mark-to-market experience is taking place at the Bank of Canada. During the pandemic, it bought $400 billion in government bonds when interest rates were as low as 0.25 per cent. As rates soared to 4.5 per cent, the bank collected low rates on the government bonds but is paying out new higher rates on deposits from financial institutions. The result is estimated losses of between $3.6 billion and $8.8 billion, according to a C.D.