Warren Buffett says we’re not through with bank failures

Investing legend Warren Buffett believes there could be more bank failures down the road, but depositors should not ever be worried.

“We’re not over bank failures, but depositors haven’t had a crisis,” the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO told CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box” Wednesday from Tokyo. “Banks go bust. But depositors aren’t going to be hurt.”

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last month — the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history — prompted extraordinary rescue action from regulators, who backstopped all deposits in the failed lenders and provided an additional funding facility for troubled banks.

The “Oracle of Omaha” said some of the “dumb” things that banks do periodically became uncovered during this period, including having mismatched assets and liabilities as well as questionable accounting.

“Bankers have been tempted to do that forever,” Buffett said. “Accounting procedures have driven some bankers to do some things that have helped their current earnings a little bit and caused the recurring temptation to do get a little bit bigger spread on record, a little more than earnings.”