economics correspondent paul solman reports. ets opened this morning, and investors promptly dumped bank stocks, despite president biden's efforts to reassure customers and investors. pres. biden: americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe. your deposits will be there when you need them. paul: damage control after the largest u.s. banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis. on friday, regulators shuttered the silicon valley bank -- svb -- and promised that insured depositors would have access to their money today. but that left uninsured depositors with large accounts to pay their employees desperate. lindsey michelides, who runs the startup strongsuit, said she wouldn't be able to pay her employees or even feed her own family. on abc, she elaborated. lindsey: we have people who just bought their first house, and they're scared of how are they going to make their mortgage payment? and are they going to lose their job? paul: so yesterday, the government extended its promise to all depositors, insured or not

economics correspondent paul solman is our guide. paul: the collapse of silicon valley bank., what happened? >> svb is a large bank that essentially failed. >> and why? i asked economist dana peterson. >> first of all, it was highly concentrated in an industry, the tech sector, that's really not doing that well right now. paul: and the depositors were? >> many of the folks who were vested in svb were very high net worth individuals, meaning they had tons of money. and you also had a number of startup companies in the tech sector. so you had companies that need money for payroll and cash. paul: of course banks usually love such depositors. but svb didn't have enough corporate or individual borrowers to loan the money to. what does a bank do then? >> you can lend to the government. uncle sam and auntie sammy are very happy to borrow from the public. and they paid decent rates of interest, of course. paul: interest on sam and sammy's iou's, that is, their government bonds. but that was a few years back. but then the tech sector turned sour, and the depositors had to start withdr