Silicon Valley Bank's former CEO, Greg Becker, gave the Senate Banking Committee his take on what led to the collapse of the institution, blaming 'unprecedented' events.
was that interest rates would remain low and that inflation that was starting to bubble up would only be transitory," Becker recalled, saying that at that time SVB "invested in low-risk, highly rated government-backed securities."
Becker said that when SVB sold its available-for-sale portfolio and initiated a planned capital raise on March 8,happened to announce its liquidation plans the same day, which triggered a bank run. He asserted that "news reports and investors wrongly lumped" the two banks together, which led to a run on SVB fueled by rumors and misconceptions spread on social media.
A worker tells people that the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters is closed on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. "In the face of these unprecedented events, the leadership team and I made the best decisions we could with the facts and forecasts available to us at the time, and the best interest of SVB to employees and to clients," he said.
Becker, who was an SVB employee for nearly 30 years and served as CEO for a dozen years before regulators took it over in March, added that he is "truly sorry" for how the bank's failure has impacted the bank's employees, clients and shareholders.
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