It turned out that Silicon Valley Bank had seemed more interested in virtue signaling than in sound banking practices. Its board of directors had only one member who was experienced in banking at the highest levels, Tom King, the former head of investment banking at Barclays. The bank’s 2022 proxy statement had proudly stated that its board was 45 percent female and had one black member, two veterans, and one who was LGBTQ+. Many of the board members had been major Democratic donors. Shockingly, the bank had had no chief risk manager for eight months of 2022 and had not hedged against the possibility of rising interest rates. That would have, necessarily, reduced returns on the bank’s investment portfolio, but would have made it much less vulnerable to what ended up happening. - The Spectator