After financial regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) due to insolvency, Signature Bank of America closed due to "systemic risk." 

Two U.S. banks collapsed within 72 hours, triggering panic across the market. According to a CGTN poll of global internet users, 94.3 percent of respondents believe there are severe vulnerabilities in the financial system in the United States. Meanwhile, 91.6 percent believe that the U.S. government's regulation of the financial system has practically no function.

Despite a series of measures taken by the U.S. government to stabilize depositors' confidence, the effect of the incident has not yet been diminished. Recently, the shares of several U.S. banks that serve technology companies, including First Republic Bank and Pacific Western Bank, have drastically plummeted. 

About 92.6 percent of respondents believe the continued collapse of banks will increase investors' distrust of U.S. banks and financial institutions, read the poll, adding that more than 80 percent of the respondents are concerned about the spillover effect of bank failures in the U.S. affecting the stability of the global financial sector.

A total of 86.8 percent of respondents also think the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike policy is the main reason for SVB's bankruptcy. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen agrees. She recently said that the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes are the main cause of the bank's failure. In the survey, about 92.9 percent of respondents are disappointed with the U.S. government's capacity to forestall financial risk.

The poll was published on CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian platforms, with over 40,000 users voting within 24 hours.

(Cover: Customers line up outside Silicon Valley Bank in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States, March 13, 2023. /CFP)