Some Silicon Valley Bank customers are having trouble transferring funds from their bank accounts, multiple sources tell TechCrunch.
The apparent flurry of withdrawal attempts comes after SVB announced yesterday that it had lost $1.8 billion in the sale of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities it had invested in, due to rising interest rates. The bank also said it was raising more capital and investing in higher yielding products. Concern ensued, causing the share price to fall more than 50% at press time.
Dozens of venture capitalists are advising their holding companies to take their assets out of the bank, sources say, while others are pushing founders to at least diversify where they hold their capital. Others, meanwhile, warn the panic is coming too soon – perhaps based on news this week that Silvergate, another bank, is closing. Therefore, SVB clearly knows the volatility of deposits from a subset of its users.
A source tells TechCrunch that parts of the SVB site are down, along with one of its customer support phones, despite using different browsers and apps to try and move their capital. Another says that account access controls are now read-only, meaning users cannot make withdrawals or transfers. Others on Twitter say they can’t log into the online banking portal as a whole.
A VC tells me that because the website is down, wallet founders are at SVB bank branches currently asking for money to be released.
In a call earlier today, CEO Greg Becker told clients the bank had “adequate liquidity” to support its clients “with one exception: if everyone thinks SVB is in trouble , it will be a challenge”. The executive asked VC customers to “stay calm. This is my request. We have been there for 40 years, supporting you, supporting portfolio companies, supporting venture capitalists.
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