Assigned bonuses shortly before the collapse – and sold its own shares at the end of February.
(Photo: Reuters)
Washington According to a media report, the Californian Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) paid out annual bonuses shortly before its collapse. Eligible employees of the money house received their performance bonuses a few hours before the US government closed them down, the US news website Axios reports on Saturday.
SVB, which specializes in financing tech start-ups, was shut down by regulators on Friday after its shares posted a record one-day loss on Wall Street on Thursday, wiping out around $80 billion in market value.
Silicon Valley Bank: Bank boss sold block of shares before bankruptcy
As the Bloomberg news agency reports, bank boss Greg Becker sold his own block of shares worth 3.6 million dollars less than two weeks before the announcement of his extensive losses, which led to the bankruptcy of the institute. The Feb. 27 sale of 12,451 shares was the first time Becker had sold shares in parent company SVB Financial Group in more than a year, according to regulatory filings, the report said.
The closure of Silicon Valley Bank also has massive consequences for the crypto industry. Stablecoin provider Circle, which is one of the bank’s clients, parked $3.3 billion at SVB.
Overall, the company has reserves of around $40 billion. Users then wanted to exchange the USDC stablecoin issued by Circle for dollars. The token temporarily lost its peg to the dollar as a result, but later recovered most of its losses.
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First publication: 03/12/2023, 01:09 a.m. (last updated: 03/12/2023, 09:25 a.m.).