BNY's Simon Rasin on SVB Lessons and Liquidity Risk Fundamentals

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BNY's Simon Rasin Calls for Back-to-Basics Approach to Liquidity Risk

Simon Rasin, Senior Managing Counsel at BNY, reflects on lessons from the SVB crisis, underscoring the importance of banking fundamentals like risk governance and balance sheet oversight. He discusses regulatory balance, the role of contingency funding, and why broad institutional knowledge is critical in preventing financial instability.

Jun 02, 2025

Edwin Njenga, Head of Marketing, CeFPro

Simon Rasin, Director, Senior Managing Counsel, Head of Legal for Corporate Treasury, Risk and Stress Testing, BNY Mellon

Tags: ALM, Treasury and Liquidity Risk

The views and opinions expressed in this content are those of the thought leader as an individual and are not attributed to CeFPro or any other organization

Simon Rasin, an attorney at BNY, argues that the SVB collapse didn’t introduce new challenges but rather reinforced long-standing lessons in Banking 101, namely, the failure to manage core risks such as interest rate exposure, maturity mismatches, and governance.

According to Rasin, these are not new concepts, but their neglect can quickly escalate into full-blown crises. For him, sound risk conversations and disciplined balance sheet management remain as vital today as ever.

Rasin also commented on regulatory responses, praising supervisors for adapting without overreaching. He cautioned against overly prescriptive reforms that could penalize valid banking strategies. Instead, he emphasized practical resilience measures like optimizing contingency funding with the Fed and streamlining execution speed.

He closed by highlighting the importance of cross-functional awareness and collaboration across banks, noting that frontline staff—not just executives—are often the first to confront crises. Broader knowledge sharing and communication, he believes, are key to long-term institutional resilience.

Edwin Njenga Bio

Edwin Njenga is a seasoned marketing professional with a robust background in financial services and event management. Currently serving as the Senior Marketing Manager at the Center for Financial Professionals (CeFPro)

Simon Rasin Bio

Simon is an experienced in-house banking attorney with a focus on regulatory and supervisory issues, fintech, finance, treasury and risk. He has been supporting BNY, the world’s largest custodial bank, in connection with prudential, balance sheet and legal matters for the last decade, with a focus on CCAR and legal loss estimation in the last several years. Simon’s also works on capital, liquidity, fintech applications, the Volcker Rule, and bank investments. Prior to BNY Simon worked at a series of law firms, including most recently Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.