- Employees of the Silicon Valley bank received their annual bonuses on Friday, just hours before regulators seized the failed bank, according to people with knowledge of the payments.
- The payments were for work done in 2022 and were in process before the bank collapse, these people said.
- On Friday, SVB CEO Greg Baker addressed workers in a two-minute video, in which he said he no longer makes decisions at the 40-year-old bank, according to sources.
Police officers leave the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California.
Noah Berger | AFP | Getty Images
Employees of the Silicon Valley bank received their annual bonuses on Friday, just hours before regulators seized the failed bank, according to people with knowledge of the payments.
The Santa Clara, California-based bank has historically paid employee bonuses on the second Friday of March, said the people, who declined to speak about the awards. Sources said the payments were for work done in 2022 and were in process before the collapse of the bank.
This year, Bonus Day fell on the last day of SVB’s independence. The institution was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) around noon on Friday in the throes of a bank run triggered by nervous venture capital investors and startup founders.
On Friday, SVB CEO Greg Becker addressed workers in a two-minute video in which he said he no longer made decisions at the 40-year-old bank, according to the people.
According to Glassdoor.com, the size of the payout cannot be determined, but SVB bonuses range from approximately $12,000 for associates to $140,000 for managing directors.
According to Bloomberg, SVB was the highest paid publicly traded bank in 2018, with its employees receiving an average of $250,683 that year.
After its seizure, the FDIC offered SVB employees 45 days of employment, the people said. The bank had 8,528 employees as of December.
A spokeswoman for the FDIC declined to comment on the bonus.