Yellen says US banks shoring up liquidity to guard against runs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that banks across the United States are worried about contagion and have been shoring up liquidity to protect themselves from runs prompted by the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Yellen told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that over the past two weeks, many mid-sized banks expressed "great concern" to the Treasury about their uninsured deposits.

"Many of these banks felt very skittish about their potential to suffer runs as well," Yellen said. "We can see that banks across the country are shoring up their liquidity, they are very worried about contagion from the troubles of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. And the steps we took were designed to improve the confidence of all depositors that they're safe in banks."

(Reporting by David Lawder)