Silicon Valley Bank employees received bonuses hours before the takeover

Silicon Valley Bank employees received their annual bonuses on Friday just hours before regulators took control of the troubled bank, according to people familiar with the payments.

The Santa Clara, California-based bank has historically paid employee bonuses on the second Friday in March, said the people, who declined to be identified talking about the awards. The sources said the payments were for work done in 2022 and were in progress days before the bank collapsed.

This year, Bonus Day fell on SVB’s recent Independence Day. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took over the institution at midday Friday, which was in the midst of a bank stampede as venture capital investors and startup founders panicked.

On Friday, SVB CEO Greg Baker addressed workers in a two-minute video saying he no longer makes decisions at the 40-year-old bank, according to People.

The size of payments cannot be determined, but SVB bonuses are ranges From about $12,000 for partners to $140,000 for principals, according to Glassdoor.com.

SVB was the highest paying publicly traded bank in 2018, with employees earning an average $250,683 That year, according to Bloomberg.

After its takeover, the FDIC offered SVB employees 45 days off work, the people said. The bank had 8,528 employees as of December.

An FDIC spokesperson declined to comment on bonuses.