Five states will lose a whopping $136.8 million from their pension funds after last week’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Amounts which North CarolinaRhode Island, Ohio, Illinois and California pension funds would only lose fractions of their value, but could still hurt the earnings of millions of Americans.

Government officials say they are now “not sure” they will ever be able to recoup the lost funds as banks around the world continue to reel from the fallout.

Now economists fear that the world may slide back into global recessionas Sweden’s largest pension fund loses more than $1 billion in assets.

The North Carolina Retirement System, which includes four major pension programs, pays out approximately $600 million each month to nearly 350,000 residents.

It was valued at $110.6 billion as of March 10, but Treasury spokesman Frank Lester said Wednesday that $10.1 million was invested in shares of the failed Silicon Valley Bank and another $7.8 million in Signature Bank shares.

These figures represent only 0.16 percent of the total funds.

State Treasurer Dale Falwell explained Raleigh News & Observer that his department did not specifically seek to buy shares of these banks, but instead invested in index funds that held bank shares.

The state government oversees index funds both internally and through external money managers such as BlackRock.

But Lester said Wednesday that “we’re not sure at this point” when the money will be returned, while Folwell noted: “I’m expecting the worst and hoping for the best.”

In California, meanwhile, the Public Employees Retirement Fund had $67 million in SVB stock and about $11 million more invested in Signature.

“These are assets that are at risk, probably losses, but generally represent a small percentage of our total portfolio,” which is valued at $457.4 billion, Chief Investment Officer Nicole Musica said at Monday’s board meeting.

North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Falwell (pictured in November) said he was “expecting the worst, hoping for the best.”

Public pension funds invested in a now-collapsed Silicon Valley bank

Rhode Island is also poised to lose $2.5 million from its employee pension system, which invested in both banks as well as at-risk First Republic and Silvergate Capital.

Those assets are now valued at just $185,535, according to Michelle Moreno-Silva, spokeswoman for Treasurer General James Diosa.

She told WPRI that the loss represents a very small percentage of the total pension fund, which is estimated at $10.3 billion.

But the Ohio state pension fund lost a total of $33.8 million from several different funds serving nearly 2 million employees.

His State Teachers Retirement System held $27.2 million in SVB shares, representing 0.03 percent of the fund’s total portfolio. Dispatch of Columbus reported, while its Public Employees Retirement System owned $3.2 million in SVB shares and $2.2 million in Signature Bank shares, representing 0.0058 percent of its investment portfolio of 92.5 billion dollars.

The Ohio Police and Fire Retirement Fund also estimated it lost $320,000, and the School Employees Retirement System, which serves non-teaching employees, estimated it lost $929,000, or 0.01 percent of of its $17 billion investment portfolio.

And in Illinois, a political organization found that the state’s Municipal Pension Fund invested more than $4.5 million in SVB.

Those shares were worth $8.6 million at the end of 2021, when the bank was trading around $700. Illinois Politics reports.

But bank failures have not only affected American pensions: Sweden’s largest pension fund, Alecta, which serves 2.6 million Swedes, suffered losses of more than $1 billion.

In 2017, the pensioner began buying shares of Signature Bank and SVB Financial Group, as well as First Republic.

Until the end of 2022. Forbes reports, Alecta was the fourth largest shareholder of SVB Financial, the sixth largest shareholder of Signature Bank and the fifth largest shareholder of First Republic.

“Obviously, given what happened last week, we think this is a big setback for us as an investor,” CEO Magnus Billing told Bloomberg. ;And we need to learn something from this and take action based on the lessons learned.’

Nevertheless, according to him, Alecta’s investments in bankrupt banks make up only 1 percent of the total capital.

“From the customer’s point of view, it has no significant impact,” he said. “It will not affect the pensions we pay to our customers.”

Billings called the Swedish pension system “very solid.”