Finance & Banking , Industry Specific
Help for Uninsured Depositors Avoids Doomsday Scenario of Startups Missing Payroll Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) • March 12, 2023 Image: Shuttershock
The short-term crisis for cybersecurity startups around the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has been averted.
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U.S. government officials announced late Sunday that all Silicon Valley Bank depositors will have access to all of their money beginning Monday. The decision is an about-face from Friday, when the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission said only insured depositors would get full access to their funds Monday, with uninsured depositors receiving nothing more than an advance dividend in the coming week (see: SVB Collapse Is ‘Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound’ for Startups).
“We are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in a statement released at 6:15 p.m. ET Sunday. “This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital role of protecting deposits.”
Avoiding a Doomsday Scenario
The distinction between insured and uninsured deposits is particularly relevant given how different Silicon Valley Bank’s customer profile was from a traditional commercial bank. Roughly $157 billion of customer deposits made with Silicon Valley Bank sat in accounts exceeding the FDIC insurance limit of $250,000, while just $4.8 billion sat in accounts that were fully insured by the FDIC at the end of 2022.
Given how many startups in sectors like cybersecurity had uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, catastrophe would have struck on Wednesday March 15, when companies that pay their employees twice-monthly need to make payroll. To balance their books, firms that did most of their banking at SVB would have needed to sell assets, conduct mass layoffs or secure a new source of funding in mere days.
The joint announcement by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and FDIC avoids a doomsday scenario for startups and the venture capitalists that back them, which in turn could have sent the entire global economy into a deep tailspin. The decision to make uninsured Silicon Valley Bank depositors whole might necessitate a special assessment on banks to recover losses to the deposit insurance fund.
“The timely action was a necessary step to prevent a cascade of other potential bank failures that would have been a catastrophic event in the already fragile global economy,” Forgepoint Capital Managing Director Alberto Yepez told Information Security Media Group. “It demonstrates that we have learned from past bank failures by instituting reserves to prevent this type of situation.”
Navigating Choppy Political Waters
Yellen told CBS’ Face the Nation early Sunday that investors and owners at Silicon Valley Bank wouldn’t be bailed out, and the joint U.S. government statement Sunday evening emphasized that none of the cost associated with making Silicon Valley Bank depositors whole will be borne by the taxpayer. Federal officials said Silicon Valley Bank shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders won’t be protected.
The decision to bail out large banks during the 2008 financial crisis ignited furor from grassroots activists across the political spectrum, contributing to both the formation of the Tea Party movement as well as Occupy Wall Street. With a U.S. presidential election coming up next year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle don’t want to appear to be putting the interests of big business ahead of ordinary taxpayers.
“This timely action was a necessary step to prevent a cascade of other potential bank failures.”
– Alberto Yepez, managing director, Forgepoint Capital
To reduce the likelihood of additional bank failures in the United States, the Federal Reserve Board announced Sunday it would make additional funding available to eligible institutions to ensure banks can meet the needs of all their depositors. The offer of assistance comes after New York’s Signature Bank – which had $118 billion in assets as of 2021 – was closed by state officials Sunday.
In addition, U.S. government officials said Silicon Valley Bank’s senior management has been removed.
Facing an Uncertain Future
The government’s decision to make all Silicon Valley Bank depositors whole suggests no agreement is imminent for another financial institution to purchase the bank’s assets. Some industry observers hoped another bank would take over the entire Silicon Valley Bank operation by the start of business Monday to maximize continuity for the startup community and their financial backers, but that appears doubtful.
The FDIC is looking for an acquirer that has the financial wherewithal and management expertise to handle Silicon Valley Bank’s assets and customers, but not one that is so large as to be considered “too big to fail” like JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America, The Information reported Sunday. The ideal bidder would likely be a regional bank like PNC Financial, US Bank, Truist or Capital One, The Information said.
Although Silicon Valley Bank’s depositors are now fully protected, startups planning to turn to the bank for loans or lines of credit now find themselves navigating choppy waters. The bank’s four decades of work with startups meant the bank was much more willing to extend money to early-stage firms with a limited book of business and long road to profitability than conventional banks, industry observers said.
And now that the FDIC is in charge of Silicon Valley Bank for the foreseeable future, startups might find it tougher to access the capital needed to scale or stay afloat amid rising inflation and interest rates.
“Those startup companies that were losing money creating the Apples or the Oracles or the CrowdStrikes of the future would have had a very difficult time banking with traditional commercial bankers,” Bob Ackerman, founder and managing director at AllegisCyber Capital, told ISMG Friday. “You needed somebody that understood the relationship between innovation and risk. SVB mastered that.”
