YouSaid · the spoken record

Paolo Bertolotti

lines on the record
57
first
2025-11-20
most recent
2025-11-20
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

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  1. “That's an excellent answer, and I totally agree with it. Let me take you down memory lane. So, our founding fathers were not just patriots, not just warriors. They were actually businessmen, right? They were the businessmen of the day. They owned land. They owned this. Benjamin Franklin had a printing press, et cetera. And the problem was in the United States, there were no banks. So the banks, they had to really bank with were the British banks. And they were the big, oligopolistic British banks that constantly took advantage of them. So the British banks and the central bank were absolutely anathema to our founding fathers. And beyond setting up a federal system to govern us, they wanted very much no central bank and a fractured banking system that could deal honestly and fairly with business people like themselves who weren't again the biggest”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Well, really, it was Biden who stopped the run against all advice. He got on television, looked into the camera, and said, all your deposits are safe. Your deposits are completely safe. They're insured. You don't have to worry about anything. Now, he knew at the time that wasn't exactly true. There was truth in it because he as president with getting the group together could have done what they ultimately did, which is basically put everybody under a sort of either a stop order or a fund order or cause the Fed to open the window wide enough wouldn't have happened, but it was a bold move. People listened to him and they said, well, the president said our deposit insured to cool it right down. However, the system remains vulnerable over the long term because deposit sizes get bigger, the economy becomes more dynamic. The internet problem hasn't been.”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Put that kind of instantaneous pressure on a bank. And the regulators weren't ready for it. The whole problem would have been solved irrespective of the asset liability mismatch if the Fed had simply opened the discount window wide enough, early enough to stop the run. They actually did do that on Sunday, but unfortunately the bank was gone early.”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Well, the SVB crisis, in one sense, was inevitable. On the other hand, is peculiar and it's a real example of what we call tail risk. It was inevitable because people make mistakes and the dynamism of the economy means that somebody's going to be out of match. They had an asset liability mismatch that was considerable. And if anybody had really thought about that and said, look, I don't want to ride along with the bank that is that out of balance. And if the Fed was actually doing its job, it would have noticed the meetings said, look, I don't care what you do, we're getting this back and battle, but they didn't. On the other hand, it is a tail-risk and unique event because it's the first time that I know of in American banking where the technology itself, that is the internet and the ability to transfer funds more rapidly, conspired together to”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Founder and CEO of Modern 5, a company that could become one of the most systematically important financial institution utilities in the United States, not by replacing banks, but by getting hundreds of them to work together. We're talking about the Cold Start problem in financial services, why the biggest opportunity in FinTech might be the least sexy, and what happens when you turn former competitors into co-owners?”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Two and a half years ago, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 48 hours. Not because of bad loans or fraud, because customers could move money faster than regulators could react. The Internet had turned a manageable problem into a systemic crisis. Here's what almost no one noticed. SVB was already a member of the deposit networks that could have prevented the run. They just weren't using them. 94% of their deposits sat uninsured while the solution gathered dust. That failure revealed something bigger. This fragmented system is either our greatest economic advantage or a ticking time bomb depending on who you ask. Community banks flood the small businesses and startups that make America different, but without the right infrastructure, they can't compete. In today's discussion, A16Z General Partner David Haber sits down with Gene Ludwig, former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, and Paolo Bertolotti.”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I remember reading the Cold Star problem when we were getting this going together and thinking, you know. Trying to solve the coalsar problem in a network effects business with financial institutions has to be the worst idea of all time. But now that we're on the other side, it's worth it. Once you get the flywheel going, it's hard to get that going. You're the first 20, that's the thing for it.”

    2025-11-20 · a16z Podcast · Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source