Bring back your money, new Silicon Valley Bank CEO urges depositors

SAN FRANCISCO: Tim Mayopoulos, new CEO of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), has urged depositors to return with their money to help the bank survive.

In a Zoom meeting with select investors and limited partners (LPs), he also asked for new deposits, saying that both existing and new deposits will be protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), reports TechCrunch.

"There's no safer place in the United States, or any bank in the United States, for deposits and the newly-formed SVB Bridge Bank is "not even subject to the typical legal limit of $250,000 of the account".

He asked customers to return deposits to the institution.

"That's the single-most important thing you can do to ensure that Silicon Valley Bank survives," Mayopoulos said on Zoom call.

Among the available options for the SVB Bridge Bank is that it would team up with another financial institution or other investors, or it could be shut down, he stressed.

"We are not in wind-down mode," he said.

The future of the bank is still being charted, but he asked customers for "at least some of your money" to return to the institution.

In an earlier email sent to clients, Mayopoulos said the bank is conducting business as usual.

"We look to restore your confidence and support you and your companies at this time. The FDIC's latest statement confirmed SVB's new track, adding that senior management has been removed from the bank," the email read.

Mayopoulous was part of the leadership suite at mortgage financing company Fannie Mae during the 2008 economic crisis.

The SVB collapse, along with Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital, is the worst financial crisis to hit the US since the failure of the Washington Mutual Fund in 2008 during the start of the US financial meltdown.