Sunshine Sentinel

Two separate national news networks' use of Signature Bank Illinois' logo on stories featuring the woes of Signature Bank New York reflects the "unholy trinity of wealth destruction," said Florida-based wealth advisor Patrick Huey. 

"This is a good example of what I call the unholy trinity of wealth destruction...television, Internet and social media broadcasting information faster than the human brain can process it," said Huey. "How can a brain that is tens-of-thousands of evolutionary years old keep up? Quite simply, it can’t. On top of mental biases and a general lack of knowledge about economics and markets, modern life piles on a bunch of distractions."

As Chicago City Wire reported, "On the March 12, 2023 edition of ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," a story about Signature Bank New York incorrectly featured a graphic containing the logo of Signature Bank Illinois."

On March 13, 2023, NBC Nightly News also used the logo of Signature Bank Illinois during a report about Signature Bank New York.

"More incredibly irresponsible reporting, this time from NBC Nightly News," Signature Bank Illinois co-founding director Kevin Bastuga posted on LinkedIn. "I hope we have made it clear that Signature Bank in Illinois is strong and has no affiliation with Signature Bank NY."

Signature Bank New York is New York City-based, traded publicly and best known for its work lending to cryptocurrency firms, on the east and west coasts. The U.S. Treasury Department, FDIC, and Federal Reserve jointly announced on March 12 that Signature Bank New York "was closed today by its state chartering authority" for "systemic risk."

Signature Bank Illinois is Rosemont, IL-based, privately-held and serves mostly Midwestern small and medium sized businesses. The bank announced "record profits and earnings" on the same weekend of the erroneous ABC News report.

A statement by Signature Bank Illinois Sunday sought to clarify that the two banks aren’t related in any way.

“Acknowledging the week’s banking news, there continues to be some industry concerns, particularly as it relates to commercial banks involved with crypto finance. In fact, you may have heard the name 'Signature Bank New York' mentioned in relation to that controversy,” it said. “We want to assure you that Signature Bank Illinois is a completely separate entity with no relation at all to Signature Bank New York, and we have no cryptocurrency exposure.”

Huey said there "is no more basic mental mistake than relating two things with similar names."

"In this case it is made easier because the names are, well, (almost) exactly the same," said Huey. "But this is still an example of a mental shortcut. It is a way to make quick decisions about complex systems with limited information and little work or research. It was Aristotle who invented a way of reasoning, called syllogistic reasoning (imperfect as it is) because our natural thought process seeks out clear-cut conclusions with minimal and often conflicting data. Illusory correlations help us reach quick conclusions, but not correct ones."

Huey is a certified financial planner and the owner of Marco Island, FL-based Victory Independent Planning LLC.  He intertwines history with today’s market conditions in his books, “History Lessons for the Modern Investor” and “The Seven Pillars of (Financial) Wisdom.”

Following the ABC News report featuring the erroneous use of the Signature Bank Illinois logo, radio host Dan Proft tweeted that this was "Typical financial sector illiteracy combined w/ the failure to fact-check."

"ABC owes @SignatureBnkChi, a strong, privately-owned, locally-run bank, a retraction and apology for mistaking their logo for that of Signature Bank of NY's. Entirely different banks," tweeted Proft, host of AM 560’s Chicago’s Morning Answer.

Following the NBC News report, he tweeted, "A useful display of the glaring herd mentality of the comically inept DC press corps: we can't let ABC win the misreporting on a bank run. We need to get in on erroneously conflating a bank in NYC with an unrelated bank in Chicago. It's impossible to underestimate US journalism."

As of the publication of this article, ABC News had not issued a public retraction or apology.