Silicon Valley Bank paid bonuses hours before takeover: report
Silicon Valley Bank reportedly paid employees their annual bonuses just hours before federal regulators shut down the bank on Friday, CNBC reported.
Sources told CNBC that the bank had historically paid their bonuses on the second Friday of March, and that their annual bonuses were in the works days before the bank collapse on Friday. The report said that the bonuses were for work done in 2022, according to the sources.
Federal regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, making it the biggest bank failure since the 2008 recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created a National Bank of Santa Clara to hold deposits and other assets of the failed bank, whose closure has cause ripples into the tech industry.
A Bloomberg News analysis showed that 93 percent of the $161 billion deposited at Silicon Valley Bank is not insured by the FDIC. The FDIC insures deposits up to $250,000, but officials are looking into backstopping all deposits in the bank, according to The Washington Post.
Lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday talk shows that they would oppose potential bailout options for Silicon Valley Bank, saying that it would not be the solution in navigating the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history.
Regulators started to auction off the failed bank on Saturday and required parties to send in their bids by 2 p.m. on Sunday, according to reports.
Silicon Valley Bank and the FDIC did not respond immediately for requests to comment on the bonuses.