Silicon Valley Bank workers accepted bonuses hours before the state seizure

March 20, 2023: On Friday, Silicon Valley Bank workers received their annual bonuses, just hours before regulators stopped the failing bank, the people with knowledge of the payments stated.

On Friday, the Santa Clara, California-based bank paid employee bonuses on March 2, stating that the people, who declined to be identified, spoke about the awards. The sources said the payments were in 2022 and had been in process days before the banks went off.

This year, bonus day it was happened to fall on SVB’s final independence day. In the throes of a bank started triggered by panicked venture capital investors and startup creators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stopped the institution around midday Friday.

According to the people, SVB CEO Greg Becker addressed employees on Friday in a two-minute video, saying he no longer made decisions at the 40-year-old bank.

The size of the payouts is not determined, but SVB bonuses range from nearly $12,000 for associates to $140,000 to manage directors, Glassdoor.com stated.

SVB was the increased-paying publicly traded bank in 2018, with employees getting nearly $250,683 for that year, according to Bloomberg.

Following its seizure, the people said the FDIC offered SVB employees 45 days of employment. The bank had 8,528 workers as of December.

A spokesman for the FDIC refused to comment on the bonuses.