On Tuesday, March 21, the Federal Reserve will hold its second Open Market Committee meeting this year. It will be followed by a press conference from Chairman Jerome Powell and an FOMC statement on Wednesday, March 22.

However, this meeting will be slightly modified as there is another important component that needs to be considered in their decision. Not only will the Federal Reserve remain focused on lowering inflation, which is still resilient in many sectors, but now they need to consider the banking crisis first reported last week.

On March 10, 2023, reports began to surface that the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was going bankrupt. SVB was unique in that its core business was funding venture capitalists and start-up technology companies.

To increase their capital, they liquidated most of their assets in the amount of $1.8 billion.

The FDIC and banking regulators immediately intervened in order to guarantee the availability of money to depositors. Following these developments, 11 large U.S. banks created a $30 billion fund held at the first Republican Bank to build solvency support for banks such as SVB and Signature Bank of New York.

Accordingly, the Federal banking regulators have responded very positively as such a fund confirms the soundness of the United States banking system.

Due to these developments, the Federal Reserve is expected to approve a quarter point rate hike.

Despite rumors that the Fed will suspend rate hikes, some analysts say that even in the face of a banking crisis, the Fed needs to continue raising rates in order to maintain its credibility.