“The messaging from the Federal Reserve was that interest rates would remain low and that the inflation that was starting to bubble up would only be ‘transitory,’” Becker said in written testimony prepared for a US Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday focused on Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, both of which were seized by regulators in March. “Indeed, between the start of 2020 and the end of 2021, banks collectively purchased nearly $2.
Becker said comparisons by the media between SVB and Silvergate Capital Corp., which announced plans to wind down just days before his bank’s seizure, contributed to SVB’s failure. Becker also acknowledged lapses on the part of SVB raised by auditors and regulators that executives were working to rectify. He pointed to the expansion of the bank’s Treasury management team to enhance risk management as it closed on $100 billion in assets, a level it surpassed in February 2021.
“I never imagined that these unprecedented events could happen to SVB and strongly believe that the leadership team and I made the best decisions we could with the facts, forecasts and outside expert advice available to us at the time,” Becker said. “The takeover of SVB has been personally and professionally devastating, and I am truly sorry for how this has impacted SVB’s employees, clients and shareholders.