Silicon Valley Financial institution workers acquired bonuses hours earlier than authorities takeover

Silicon Valley Financial institution workers acquired their annual bonuses Friday simply hours earlier than regulators seized the failing financial institution, based on folks with data of the funds.

The Santa Clara, California-based financial institution has traditionally paid worker bonuses on the second Friday of March, mentioned the folks, who declined to be recognized talking in regards to the awards. The funds have been for work finished in 2022 and had been in course of days earlier than the financial institution’s collapse, the sources mentioned.

This yr, bonus day occurred to fall on SVB’s closing day of independence. The establishment, within the throes of a financial institution run triggered by panicked enterprise capital buyers and startup founders, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company (FDIC) round noon Friday.

On Friday, SVB CEO Greg Becker addressed staff in a two-minute video wherein he mentioned that he not made choices on the 40-year-old financial institution, based on the folks.

The dimensions of the payouts could not be decided, however SVB bonuses vary from about $12,000 for associates to $140,000 for managing administrators, based on Glassdoor.com.

SVB was the highest-paying publicly traded financial institution in 2018, with workers getting a mean of $250,683 for that yr, based on Bloomberg.

After its seizure, the FDIC provided workers 45 days of employment, the folks mentioned. The financial institution had 8,528 workers as of December.

A spokesman for the FDIC declined to touch upon the bonuses.