Not necessarily. If insurance companies were allowed to set prices based on the bank you're deposited with, then what's currently a political process could become a market-based process. Have assets that are exposed to interest rate hikes? Higher insurance rates. Have assets that hedge against changes in the interest rate? Lower deposit insurance rates. Won't let us see your asset mix? Assume the worst case scenario.
So in this universe, when you go to get insurance at SVB, you see that it costs you 1% per year, which seems high to you. You go to the insurance company's website, and see that insurance for Chase is only 0.5%, so you switch to them instead. SVB is pressured to change to a less risky strategy by the market, not b the government.
(NB I'm not a libertarian, nor am I recommending this approach; I'm just saying that in theory such a system could work.)
EDIT: Upon reflection, this might just punt the issue down the road: Suppose SVDI (Silicon Valley Deposit Insurance) gives you a rate of 0.1% per year at SVB. Everything is fine until SVB fails, and then it turns out SVDI didn't have enough capital to back their insurance, and you lose anyway.
Maybe there are ways you could fix this, but my preliminary conclusion would be that you need some kind of regulation somewhere.
You can sort of fix this in a free market system through reinsurance which spreads the risk out across multiple counterparties with deep capital reserves. But ultimately the only way to eliminate the risk is through insurance by a sovereign with the ability to levy taxes and print fiat currency.
So in this universe, when you go to get insurance at SVB, you see that it costs you 1% per year, which seems high to you. You go to the insurance company's website, and see that insurance for Chase is only 0.5%, so you switch to them instead. SVB is pressured to change to a less risky strategy by the market, not b the government.
(NB I'm not a libertarian, nor am I recommending this approach; I'm just saying that in theory such a system could work.)
EDIT: Upon reflection, this might just punt the issue down the road: Suppose SVDI (Silicon Valley Deposit Insurance) gives you a rate of 0.1% per year at SVB. Everything is fine until SVB fails, and then it turns out SVDI didn't have enough capital to back their insurance, and you lose anyway.
Maybe there are ways you could fix this, but my preliminary conclusion would be that you need some kind of regulation somewhere.