Silicon Valley Bank Fails After Run by Venture Capital Customers

SeniorBen

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took control of the bank’s assets on Friday. The failure raised concerns that other banks could face problems, too.

Silicon Valley Bank, a lender to some of the biggest names in the technology world, [ran out of money] on Friday, becoming the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. The move put nearly $175 billion in customer deposits, including money from some of the biggest names in the technology world, under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/business/silicon-valley-bank-stock.html

Good thing their CEO had a annual salary of over 10 million dollars. They need exorbitant salaries so banks can get the best and the brightest. /sarcasm

Wonder if he'll thank the public for bailing out Silicon Valley Bank. Perhaps we should start a GoFundMe site.
 

Someone in another thread mentioned how unwise it was to invest in low yield bonds when interest rates were at their lowest, which is exactly what Silicon Valley Bank did. Although, I'm not saying that was the entire reason for the bank's failure. I hope we don't end up bailing them out and paying bonuses to to the guys in charge.
 
Someone in another thread mentioned how unwise it was to invest in low yield bonds when interest rates were at their lowest, which is exactly what Silicon Valley Bank did. Although, I'm not saying that was the entire reason for the bank's failure. I hope we don't end up bailing them out and paying bonuses to to the guys in charge.
Saw one snip of a balance sheet and they're high in mortgage investments. Where have we heard mortgages and financial collapse before. Hmmm, back in 2008?

I don't care about the bigger funds it's the start ups or small businesses
 
Someone in another thread mentioned how unwise it was to invest in low yield bonds when interest rates were at their lowest, which is exactly what Silicon Valley Bank did. Although, I'm not saying that was the entire reason for the bank's failure. I hope we don't end up bailing them out and paying bonuses to to the guys in charge.
We are bailing them out. They're insured by the government, which is us.
 
The official read from the FDIC...
https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html

The interesting thing is this did not just happen overnight. There is typically planning in advance, for such actions, which is supposedly done in great secrecy. That the stock price collapsed yesterday is intriguing, although short interest was certainly a factor. The swiftness of the collapse, so near the start of trading, will need to be investigated, imho.
 
I read a bit about this. Some companies had millions/billions held there. They only get 250K from FDIC, probably Monday. Saw one interview where a startup company slyly did multiple transactions to get their money transferred out, down under 250K, before the place got locked up.
 
No tears over troubles for banks, financial corps, and real estate corporations from this peon. Mortgage Backed Securities and their whole derivitive instruments world has a foul odor.
 
Always a problem when you narrow your customer base to just one or two market segments. SVB specialized in technology and viticulture, and the downturn in technology unicorns caught them unable to raise sufficient cash to satisfy demands (small firms going under; drawing down both lines of credit (loans) and business accounts (hard cash)).

Banks (like insurers) must keep a certain percentage of liquidity held in reserve against loans. Unfortunately, very low interest rates over the last 10 yrs mean those financial institutions were earning almost nothing on those reserved assets; which by law must be held in secure negotiable/redeemable assets (IOW, Treasuries - and only the longer-term T-Bonds offered any real return).

SVB's assets are real, but in a time of higher interest rates, they are not salable so SVB could not raise sufficient cash fast enough. Why buy a portfolio of assets earning 1.5% when at minimum you can earn 5+% elsewhere, at no additional risk?

Thus, the difference between the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. The Fed has actual "teeth", the ECB does not. The Fed makes the reserve requirements and requires mandatory insurance premiums to protect against default (bank failures, as happened in 1929); the ECB can only "suggest" actions to its member banks.

It is one of the biggest risks of small- to mid-size businesses that on one hand, it pays to simplify your finances by using one bank - except that a business account churns a lot of money in and out on a daily basis (rent, taxes, equipment, employee salaries, et. al.) so it's very easy to go over the $250K limit on FDIC insurance.
 
SVB isn't the only bank in trouble. Here's several more that are on "thin ice"..........

https://www.morningstar.com/news/ma...on-huge-potential-securities-lossesas-was-svb
The only one of those bank I ever heard of is Ally.
@Lethe200 One lady on the news said she didn't know how she was going to make payroll now. It wasn't clear what company she owns or works for. Unfortunately I know someone who's relative works for that bank (rather worked) and woke up realizing he has no job.
 
Given that something north of 80% of deposits exceeded FDIC insurance guidelines... THOSE depositors, as well as the shareholders are definitely hurting.
Yup, thought I saw bank deposits are insured upto $250K now. One business has like 600-800 million dollars in there. Business like Roku and Esty use them. One rumor even has Megan and Harry put money there.
 
Might be worth a read.

Roku, Roblox and others disclose their exposure to SVB in SEC filings​

Sarah Perez@sarahintampa / 9:02 AM CST•March 11, 2023
Comment
roku


The fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is impacting a range of startups and larger firms including, as we know now from SEC filings, publicly traded companies like Roku, Roblox, Quotient, and others. Roku said in a filing that it had around $487 million held at SVB, representing around 26% of its cash and cash equivalents as of March 10, 2023, as Variety was first to report. Its remaining balance of $1.4 billion is distributed across other large financial institutions, it said.

“At this time, the Company does not know to what extent the Company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB,” Roku’s filing stated. “Notwithstanding the closure of SVB, the Company continues to believe that its existing cash and cash equivalents balance and cash flow from operations will be sufficient to meet its working capital, capital expenditures, and material cash requirements from known contractual obligations for the next twelve months and beyond,” it said.
Roku had just come off a fourth-quarter earnings beat with $867.1 million in revenue compared with Wall St. expectations of $801.69 million, and a fourth-quarter loss of $1.70 a share versus the $1.72 anticipated. However, the company’s Q1 2023 guidance had still been cautious, citing the current macroeconomic environment. Shares have since dropped by over 3% in after-hours trading. Yesterday, Roku announced a partnership with Best Buy and its advertising business.

Meanwhile, gaming platform Roblox said in a filing approximately 5% of its $3 billion cash and securities balance was held at SVB as of Feb. 28, 2023. “Thus, regardless of the ultimate outcome and the timing, this situation will have no impact on the day to day operations of the Company,” Roblox assured investors. The company’s stock had just been upgraded by Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz from a hold to a buy, citing the platform’s ability to continue to grow despite near-term concerns over the economy.

The updates are a further indication of how closely connected the failed bank was with the larger tech industry and the further ramifications its closure could have on brand-name firms. In addition to Roku and Robox, omnichannel digital marketing firm and Coupons.com owner Quotient also disclosed a smaller impact, noting it held $400,000 at Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited, a UK-based subsidiary of SVB.

Space company Rocket Lab USA said it had $38 million in cash, or 7.9% of its total cash as of Dec. 31, 2022, with SVB.

Vimeo said in an SEC filing it holds accounts at SVB with a total balance of less than $250,000, which means it’s insured by the FDIC. “The company believes it does not have exposure to any liquidity concern at SVB. The Company has a well structured and diverse set of banking partners with no bank holding over 25% of its total cash,” Vimeo’s filing noted.
Other companies have been posting to social media and disclosing in filings to assure investors they were not exposed.
For example, SoFi announced in a tweet and in a filing that it has no assets with SVB and its only exposure was a “very small lending facility” that was provided to the company for less than $40 million, which was “unaffected by the FDIC’s receivership of Silicon Valley Bank,” the post read, likely in hope to avoid contagion from this catastrophe.
Streamer fuboTV also filed to inform investors it didn’t hold any deposit or have any investments at SVB.

SVB was closed down by regulators on Friday and will re-open Monday with the FDIC in charge. It said all insured depositors will have full access to insured deposits no later than Monday morning. Deposits are insured up to $250,000 per depositor.
 
Yup, thought I saw bank deposits are insured upto $250K now. One business has like 600-800 million dollars in there. Business like Roku and Esty use them. One rumor even has Megan and Harry put money there.
It jumped to the 250K on October 3rd 2008, from $100K. I can remember when it was 10K.

They keep mentioning this is the largest closure since Washington Mutual. Washington Mutual received no bailout money, nor did any depositors lose a dime, all with it not costing the FDIC any money.

There was interest in buying Washington Mutual, but highly unlikely anyone is interested in SVB, although there might be some interest within the SVB Holding Company.

There is "talk" of using tax dollars to make the depositors whole. Generally speaking, this is political chatter amongst California politicians, to impress their constituencies. At least I would hope that be the case.
 
Here it is... deregulation may have led to the failure of SVB!

Silicon Valley Bank chief pressed Congress to weaken risk regulations. CEO Greg Becker personally led the bank’s half-million-dollar push to reduce scrutiny of his institution – and lawmakers obliged

Eight years before the second-largest bank failure in American history occurred this week, the bank’s president personally pressed Congress to reduce scrutiny of his financial institution, citing the “low risk profile of our activities and business model”, according to federal records reviewed by the Lever.

Three years later – after the bank spent more than half a million dollars on federal lobbying – lawmakers obliged.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/11/silicon-valley-bank-weaken-risk-regulations-svb

Becker sold $3.6m of his own stock two weeks ago in the lead-up to the bank’s collapse. Lock him up!
 
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took control of the bank’s assets on Friday. The failure raised concerns that other banks could face problems, too.

Silicon Valley Bank, a lender to some of the biggest names in the technology world, [ran out of money] on Friday, becoming the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. The move put nearly $175 billion in customer deposits, including money from some of the biggest names in the technology world, under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/business/silicon-valley-bank-stock.html

Good thing their CEO had a annual salary of over 10 million dollars. They need exorbitant salaries so banks can get the best and the brightest. /sarcasm

Wonder if he'll thank the public for bailing out Silicon Valley Bank. Perhaps we should start a GoFundMe site.
Yes, and if these massively overpaid execs are supposed to "be the best brains"(!) then what on earth are the worst like?
 

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