Financial regulators have closed Silicon Valley Bank and taken control of its deposits, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced Friday, in what is the largest U.S. bank failure since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.
The collapse of SVB, a key player in the tech and venture capital community, leaves companies and wealthy individuals largely unsure of what will happen to their money.
According to press releases from regulators, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed SVB and named the FDIC as the receiver. The FDIC in turn has created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara, which now holds the insured deposits from SVB.
The FDIC said in the announcement that insured depositors will have access to their deposits no later than Monday morning. SVB’s branch offices will also reopen at that time, under the control of the regulator.
This story is an UPDATE to a story I published about 7:30 this morning showing that bank in particular has seen its share price plunge upwards of 70% overnight, and looked to be in trouble. That earlier story is HERE
UPDATE --
A Silicon Valley Bank branch in Manhattan today called the cops on tech investors trying to pull their cash out as a run on the bank today forced regulators to seize its assets.
Police were called after 'about a dozen' financiers, including former Lyft executive Dor Levi, showed up outside the building on Park Avenue as investors scrambled to get their money out in the biggest collapse since the Great Recession.
The bank failed today as depositors - mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies - began withdrawing their money following a shock announcement of a $1.8bn loss. The bank took a hammering in pre-market with its price plunging by 66 percent before trading was halted.
But with investors only protected up to $250,000, there have already been horror stories. Ashley Tyrner, CEO of Boston wellness firm FarmboxRx, said she had at least $10m deposited with SVB and has been frantically calling her banker. She called it 'the worst 18 hours of my life.'
With around $209bn in assets, SVB is the second-largest bank failure in US history after the 2008 collapse of Washington Mutual. It is the first FDIC-insured bank to fail in more than two years, the last being Almena State Bank in October 2020.
***** FLASH UPDATE *****
As of 1:51 PM EST, I am being told the following:
"The FDIC noted that SVIB had $175BN in deposits as of Dec 31, note that some $151.5BN of these are uninsured, which means they get exactly ZERO back.
They get a COUPON that can be redeemed for whatever is left after wind-down and the government gets paid back.
For the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the year 2008, it was 1/2 cent on the dollar, paid out ten years later."
UPDATE 2:15 PM EST --
I am told "There is CONTAGION" in this Bank trouble . . . .
Central banks have been dumping billions and billions in the bond market to try to stabilize the 10 year and they failed miserably. They have no liquidity.
. . . seems like a good time to start WWIII and head for the bunkers before anyone starts asking awkward questions.
