Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker sold $2.27 million worth of Silicon Valley Bank shares on Feb. 27, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The sales were part of the 10b5-1 program he filed on January 26. Another SEC filing shows that Becker sold $1.1 million worth of stock in January to cover tax liabilities.
Meanwhile, a CNBC report says that the bank’s senior management, including the CEO, sold $4.5 million worth of shares right before its collapse.
SVB Pays Bonuses Hours Before FDIC Takes Over Bank
Axios said SVB paid out annual bonuses to US employees on March 10, just hours before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of the bank. However, this could have been a coincidence, as the payment date was planned well in advance.
Since the bank now controls the FDIC, payments to employees from other countries have come into question. True, the government agency has offered to retain some of the staff for 45 days to assist in the transition period.
Does Silicon Valley Bank have a chance of being saved?
The data published by the media drew even more attention to the SVB bank. It is the largest US bank that collapsed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and several stakeholders are already calling for the government to bail it out.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, for example, is urging the government to bail out a bank because it is used by several large venture capital firms. According to him, the collapse of the SVB could be disastrous for the economy. Ackman also noted that another private bank is unlikely to be able to bail out SVB, given how the regulator dealt with JPMorgan when it bailed out Bear Stearns.
The crypto community makes fun of regulators
Several members of the community pointed to the failure of the SVB as evidence of the hypocrisy of US regulators and politicians. Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, has come under fire for a tweet about a fictitious audit of cryptocurrencies.
BlockTower Capital founder Ari Paul noted that Silvergate granted all withdrawal requests, while the much larger bank SVB caused many good companies to fail.
Source: CryptoNewsHerald.com
Comments (No)