SVB chief pressed US lawmakers to weaken bank risk scrutiny

NEW DELHI: Eight years before the second-largest bank failure in American history occurred this week, the bank's president personally pressed Congress to reduce scrutiny of his financial institution, citing the "low risk profile of our activities and business model," media reported.

Three years later - after the bank spent more than half a million dollars on federal lobbying - lawmakers obliged. On Friday, California regulators shut down the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a top lender to venture capital firms and tech startups, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took it over, following a bank run by its customers.

The bank reportedly did not have a chief risk officer in the months leading up to the collapse, while more than 90 per cent of its deposits were not insured, The Lever reported.

In 2015, SVB President Greg Becker appeared before a Senate panel to push legislators to exempt more banks - including his own - from new regulations passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Despite warnings from some senators, Becker's lobbying effort was ultimately successful.

Touting "SVB's deep understanding of the markets it serves, our strong risk management practices," Becker argued that his bank would soon reach $50 billion in assets, which under the law would trigger "enhanced prudential standards," including more stringent regulations, stress tests, and capital requirements for his and other similarly sized banks, The Lever reported.

In his testimony, Becker insisted that $250 billion was a more appropriate threshold. "Without such changes, SVB likely will need to divert significant resources from providing financing to job-creating companies in the innovation economy to complying with enhanced prudential standards and other requirements," said Becker, who reportedly sold $3.6 million of his own stock two weeks ago, in the lead-up to the bank's collapse, The Lever reported.

"Given the low risk profile of our activities and business model, such a result would stifle our ability to provide credit to our clients without any meaningful corresponding reduction in risk." Two months later, SVB added former Obama Treasury Department official Mary Miller to its board, noting she had previously helped oversee "financial regulatory reforms."