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It means that your bonds having a low interest rate is only a problem if you plan on selling the bonds instead of holding them until maturity.

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No? If you hold a 1.5% bond to maturity when the cash rate is 4.5% and projected to rise further you lose money in a very literal sense. Also they had to sell some at loss to just keep going before any gossip of trouble.

You lose earnings. You don’t lose the stake. But when you are forced to sell early, you do lose the stake.

Money is money, lost earnings are just as lossy as lost anything else. You could say they'd lose less if they "wait and hold"-ed, but they couldn't afford that, again, even before any hint of a bank run, and the risk exposure was increasing.

yeah in that regard SVB also lost hundreds of billions on trades it could have made optimally in the market with those funds (looking with hindsight).

Should you look at the opportunity costs for lost potential gains in this scenario -- yeah. Does it "lose money" -- no, not unless you are forced to sell before maturity.

lost earnings are a wish for what could have been, not lost in reality.

When you own a 1.5% 10-year and balance it against a 3% deposit your losses are very real and amount to 15%. If you don't offer 3% deposits you lose clients and your problem just got worse.

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