Silicon Valley Bank’s Manhattan branch calls COPS on investors trying to pull their cash out as Boston tech CEO with $10M in bank describes ‘worst 18 hours of my life’: Lender is SEIZED by regulators in largest US bank failure since Great Recession
Police were called (center and inset) 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 (left), CEO of Boston wellness firm FarmboxRx, said she had at least $10m deposited with SVB and has been frantically calling her banker. She said it had been ‘the worst 18 hours of my life.’ With around $209bn in assets, SVB (heardquarters, right) 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.
TECH BANK BUST
REGULATORS SHUT
RUN FEAR
CONTAGION ALARM
