Posted on 03/20/2023 4:15:11 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
Silicon Valley Bank failed just 14 days after KPMG LLP gave the lender a clean bill of health. Signature Bank went down 11 days after the accounting firm signed off on its audit. What KPMG knew about the two banks’ financial situation and what it missed will likely be the subject of regulatory scrutiny and lawsuits. KPMG signed the audit report for Silicon Valley Bank’s parent, SVB Financial Group SIVB Regulators seized the bank on March 10 after a surge of withdrawals threatened to leave it short of cash. “Common sense tells you that an auditor issuing a clean report, a clean bill of health, on the 16th-largest bank in the United States that within two weeks fails without any warning, is trouble for the auditor,” said Lynn Turner, who was chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1998 to 2001. Two crucial facts for determining whether KPMG missed the banks’ problems are when the bank runs began in earnest and when the bank’s management and KPMG’s auditors became aware of the crisis. What is known about Silicon Valley Bank is that deposit outflows accelerated last month. In its March 8 statement, Silicon Valley Bank said “client cash burn has remained elevated and increased further in February.” The bank said its deposits at the end of February were lower than it had predicted in January. Both bank audits were for 2022, so auditors weren’t scrubbing the banks’ books for the time period when they ran into trouble. But auditors are supposed to highlight risks faced by the companies they audit. They are also supposed to raise important issues that occur after companies close their books and before the audit is completed. A spokesman for KPMG declined to comment on the specific audits, due to client confidentiality.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
According to Patrick Boyle’s YouTube video the bank hadn’t had a risk manager employed the prior nine months.
I’ve done a project for KPMG in the past.
Let’s just say I was less than impressed.
I could walk onto an airplane 10 minutes before takeoff 🛫
Appreciate the confirmation. :)
About 80% of Enron profits came from its petroleum futures trading company.
When the Feds publicly announced an investigation into Enron accounting, transactions at the Enron trading company dropped to zero.
No professional oil trader is going to do business with a company that may not be able to fulfill the other side of a contract.
At least 50% of Enron's value, and 95% of Arthur Andersen, could have been preserved if the DOJ and SEC had not deliberately destroyed them.
KPMG has done audit work for us in the past. I'd bet the farm this article means they're toast here.
Okay, I’m pretty sure KPMG is not some type of Machine Gun. Can anyone break it out for me?
“Going Concern” is part of auditor responsibility.
Not near my computer...can’t explain. Look it up.
When they did the audit…it probably was fine. What a difference a billion dollar withdrawal makes. Lol.
“KPMG Gave SVB, Signature Bank Clean Bill of Health Weeks Before Collapse”
Let me guess: All the Author Anderson CROOKS went to KPMG when Anderson was given its corporate ‘death sentence’.
Cash flow might have been red flag.
It used to be Peat Marwick. Was bought out by a Dutch outfit, Klynveld Main Goerdeler.
KPMG’s reputation exists only because people think that when a company charges some of the highest rates in the business that they must be excellent. Or maybe those high rates allowed SVB to buy exactly what they wanted.
“I could walk onto an airplane 10 minutes before takeoff 🛫”
We haven’t been able to do that for many years now. I’m old enough to remember when you just showed them your drivers license and boarding pass and off you went.
Recessions uncover what auditors do not.
“Somebody gave them a pass because there is no way those huge gaps could have passed muster.”
Good post.
The problem is systemic—auditing firms have an inherent conflict of interest in the audits of their large clients.
They need and want to keep their business.
Bad audits tend to irritate customers.
;-)
That is why I don’t trust audit firms as far as I can throw them.
My company is really getting fed up with the CPA firms we use for audits and tax returns for our large partnerships that have hundreds of investors. Missed deadlines, broken promises, etc.
I like the work I'm doing, i.e. partnership returns for the properties we own and operate. It's my last rodeo, as I'll be 70 within the next 18 months.
Allow me an observation: Gen Z produces lousy accountants, I don't know what they're being taught in college today. I had the benefit of learning from one professor, for 30+ semester hours. He never used numbers, always taught the theory behind an accounting problem. Nothing but essay questions, they were legendary.
My two supervisors are top notch CPAs, who really care about getting it right. The newbies we deal with rarely ask questions, because they think they know it all. Uninquisitive to a fault, they'll ask me why they aren't getting the right answers, rather than look for it themselves.
Work extra time during tax season? LOL, that ain't happening, either. I know my reward is coming after April 15th, whether it be comp time and/or a cash bonus. There's something wrong with me, because I don't care which way they go. However, I do remember a generous Christmas bonus when I had been there only two months. It's not too bad, between 50-55 hours a week.
Sorry, rant off.
It took me 8 months, but they were very happy with the results: they were a well known publicly traded company, whose mascot was a rodent (no not Disney lol), with 14 subsidiaries, and restaurants in 45 states and several foreign countries.
I would have stayed there if they had an opening. Alas, the tenure of their accounting staff was around 20 years.
Apologies for going O/T.
Thanks for your comments and the comments by others who have actually spent time in the audit trenches.
When a bank borrows billions in short term demand deposits and then lends those billions in 30 year bonds and mortgages, that is a major red flag to me.
I have heard that the US banks are in the range of $2 to $3 trillion under water when their bond/mortgage portfolios are marked to market.
It sure looks like the FED will be doing another multi-trillion dollar quantitative easing where they buy these underwater bonds/mortgages from the banks.
“I have heard that the US banks are in the range of $2 to $3 trillion under water when their bond/mortgage portfolios are marked to market.
It sure looks like the FED will be doing another multi-trillion dollar quantitative easing where they buy these underwater bonds/mortgages from the banks.”
Good post.
The Fed and Treasury have a very simple plan—the same one they have had since 2008.
Kick the can down the road—as long as you can—as quietly as you can.
The idea is they don’t want the herd getting spooked.
For individuals my advice is to focus on minimizing expenses.
If you do that you will not be tempted to take investing risks.
Get your cost of living as low as you can—so when hard times do hit—and they will—you do not face a major reduction in your standard of living.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.