Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB Financial Group)
The California commercial bank that made itself the house bank of the venture-capital economy (start-ups, their investors and their founders), grew from ~$62bn of deposits at end-2019 to ~$189bn at end-2021 as venture money flooded in, parked most of that cash in long-dated mortgage bonds at near-zero yields, and failed on March 10, 2023 after a ~$42bn one-day run by a tightly networked, ~94% uninsured depositor base. It was the second-largest bank failure in US history at the time. Its loans and deposits went to First Citizens BancShares on March 27, 2023, its UK arm to HSBC for £1, and its holding company into Chapter 11, while the government's decision to protect all depositors reopened the debate on deposit insurance, the 2018–19 "tailoring" of bank rules, and how supervisors deal with interest-rate risk.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1983 (bank opened in October 1983, reported), San Jose, California; later headquartered in Santa Clara
- Founders
- Bill Biggerstaff and Robert Medearis, with Roger Smith as founding CEO (the "poker game" founding story is company lore, reported)
- Headquarters
- Santa Clara, California (holding company: SVB Financial Group, Nasdaq: SIVB until its 2023 delisting)
- Ownership / structure
- Public bank holding company; state-chartered member bank (Federal Reserve member, California DFPI charter); subsidiaries included SVB Capital (funds), SVB Securities (formerly SVB Leerink), SVB Private (Boston Private), SVB UK and a 50% China joint venture
- Leadership at failure
- Greg Becker, president and CEO (2011–2023); Daniel Beck, CFO; Laura Izurieta, chief risk officer until spring 2022, with the post vacant for ~8 months before Kim Olson was named (reported)
- Segment and clients
- Commercial bank for the "innovation economy": venture-backed technology and life-science companies, venture and private-equity funds (capital-call lines), founders and executives (private banking), plus premium wine clients
- Scale at peak
- Total assets ~$211bn at end-2021 and ~$212bn at end-2022 (holding company, 10-K: $211.3bn / $211.8bn); deposits ~$189bn (end-2021) and ~$173bn (end-2022, 10-K). The FDIC's failure figures (~$209bn assets, ~$175bn deposits) are the bank's own end-2022 call-report numbers; 16th-largest US bank by assets at failure (reported)
- Profit
- Net income ~$1.8bn (2021) and ~$1.5bn (2022) (reported, verify)
- Market value
- Peaked at ~$44bn in late 2021 (stock above ~$750, reported, verify); fell ~60% on March 9, 2023; equity wiped out
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding a bank for venture-backed companies (1983); early-1990s real estate losses and refocus (1992); global expansion and China JV (2012); lobbying for and benefiting from regulatory tailoring (2018); the deposit boom and held-to-maturity bond bet (2020–21); SVB Leerink and Boston Private (2019–21); the March 2023 run and failure; sale to First Citizens (2023); litigation, estate and rule changes (2024–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1983
Founding Bank for the Innovation Economy
Founding
1992
Real Estate Losses and Refocus
Restructuring (after credit losses)
2012
Global Expansion and China Joint Venture
Launch / partnership (international branches and a joint-venture bank)
2018
Regulatory Tailoring and the 250bn Threshold
Regulatory (lobbying and regulatory change)
2020
Deposit Boom and HTM Bond Bet
Balance-sheet strategy (investment of surplus deposits) — the decision that led to failure
2021
SVB Leerink and Boston Private
Acquisition (two deals building investment banking and private wealth)
2023
First Citizens Acquisition
Acquisition (failed-bank purchase and assumption)
2023
March Run and Failure
Failure (attempted balance-sheet repositioning that triggered a run)
2025
Litigation Estate and Regulatory Aftermath
Bankruptcy / litigation / regulatory settlement and rule changes