Tag: SVB

A consortium of prominent tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel (PayPal co-founder, Palantir co-founder, and Founders Fund principal), Palmer Luckey (founder of Anduril and Oculus), and Joe Lonsdale (co-founder of Palantir and founder of 8VC), is launching a new digital bank named Erebor. This initiative is a direct response to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023, which left a significant gap in banking services for startups.

According to a Bloomberg report, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating withdrawals made from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) before its collapse. The inquiry allegedly focuses on whether private equity firm executives withdrew funds from their personal accounts at the bank before their clients. The SEC has requested the necessary records, PYMNTS reports.

On Monday, First Republic Bank was seized by the U.S. regulators. JPMorgan Chase then acquired all of First Republic’s deposits, including uninsured ones, and a “substantial majority of assets.” First Republic has been under scrutiny as the weakest link in the U.S. banking system since the post-FTX collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in March 2022. To protect depositors, the FDIC is entering into a purchase and assumption agreement with JPMorgan Chase.

First-Citizens Bank, one of the largest regional banks in the U.S., is buying big pieces of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) more than two weeks after the lender’s collapse sent tremors through the banking system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) announced. The purchase includes $119 billion in deposits and about $72 billion of SVB’s loans at a discount of $16.5 billion. Some $90 billion of SVB’s securities will remain in receivership. 

Currently, the industry is searching for the culprits of the banking run that brought down first California's Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and then New York's Signature Bank. Bank run works through mass psychology that prominent influencers can easily trigger, especially in a nervous market environment. Some say it was the comments and recommendations of influential that tech mogul Peter Thiel triggered the run on SVB. However, Thiel claims he himself lost $50 million with the SVB collapse.

Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second-largest bank after UBS Group, with assets of around $580 billion at the end of 2022, more than twice the size of Silicon Valley Bank (SBV), which failed last week. Over the last few days, Credit Suisse shares and bonds have lost massive value because of nasty rumors. The bank announced it would borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($53.7 billion) from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to shore up its liquidity.

Last Friday, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was closed by California regulator DFPI due to a bank run and placed under FDIC control. The DFPI stated that SVB had been financially sound until a few days before. The WJS reports that KPMG issued a clean bill of health to SVB just 14 days before. The New York-based Signature Bank went down 11 days after KPMG signed off on its audit. This raises the question of whether KPMG has overlooked something.

The Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) sudden death on Friday triggered shockwaves in the already traumatized crypto scene. One of the victims of the SVB collapse was the USDC stablecoin, which is 100% collateralized with cash and US Treasuries. $3.3 billion of USDC’s cash reserves had been deposited with SVB at the time of the collapse. The USDC price dived but recovered quickly. USDC issuer Circle said they hope the regulators will find a solution that protects customers’ assets 100%.

According to a Reuters report, the U.S. financial sector and the startup scene are shaken by the sudden death of the Californian Silicon Valley Bank (SBV). The contagion fear reaches global dimensions. Financial industry executives, investors, and founders are concerned that the SBV collapse could result in a domino effect on other regional banks and startups. The regulators are urged to intervene to avoid a massive wave of startup wipe-out.

The death spiral in the fintech and crypto sector continues to spin. It started in 2022 with the collapse of the crypto sector last year, which also dragged down the FinTech sector. On 10 March, Californian Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was taken over by the regulator due to a bank run resulting in lethal liquidity issues. The shutdown of the bank, systemically critical to the U.S. startup and crypto scene, will most certainly trigger more bankruptcies among their clients.

Yesterday, FinTelegram reported on the problems of SVB Financial Group, the owners of Silicon Valley Bank, a key player in the tech and venture capital community. SVB shares had collapsed against the backdrop of losses and acute capital needs at its bank. SVB faced a bankrun and ran out of liquidity. On Friday, The U.S. FDIC took control of the company. Many startups will probably lose their funds.