Representatives from both political parties pressed Barr on why the Fed did not act more forcefully, given its supervisors had been raising issues with the bank for months.

Barr on Tuesday criticized SVB for going months without a chief risk officer and for how it modeled interest rate risk.

“Why didn’t the Fed consider escalating any of these issues into a cease-and-desist order or some other forceful action against the bank to remediate these deficiencies?” asked Republican Ann Wagner.

Barr responded that the concern was a “fair point” and that the Fed would look into it.

Barr told the House Financial Services Committee that he first became aware of stress at Silicon Valley Bank on the afternoon of March 9, but that the bank reported to supervisors that morning that deposits were stable.

Martin Gruenberg, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told lawmakers he also became aware of SVB’S stress that Thursday evening.

SVB and Signature became the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history. Investors fled to safe havens like bonds while depositors moved funds to bigger institutions and money market funds.

Markets have calmed down since Swiss regulators engineered the sale of troubled Swiss giant Credit Suisse to rival UBS, and after SVB’S assets were sold to First Citizens Bancshares. However, investors remain wary of more troubles lurking in the financial system.

“Our entire economy has

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Martin Gruenberg testifies Tuesday on Capitol Hill in Washington.

been hurt. It has been rattled by what happened this month. Our bank regulatory system has some real flaws,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat.

The Fed was in discussions with Silicon Valley Bank the day before its collapse to move pledgable collateral to the discount window, a key facility long associated with providing emergency loans to banks, Barr said on Wednesday.

“(Fed) staff were working with Silicon Valley Bank basically all afternoon and evening and through the morning the next day to pledge as much collateral as humanly possible to the discount (window) on Friday,” Barr said.

Some Democrats have also argued a 2018 bank deregulation law is to blame. That law, mostly backed by Republicans but also some moderate Democrats, relaxed the strictest oversight for firms holding between $100 billion and $250 billion in assets, which included SVB and Signature.

The White House is readying plans for legislation that would reinstate those regulations on midsize banks, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.