The former CEO of the collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has said he was “truly sorry” for what he called the “devastating” collapse of the bank that triggered the worst banking crisis since 2008.
Speaking at a Senate banking committee hearing on Tuesday, Greg Becker said he believed the bank was responsive to regulator concerns about managing risk and working to address issues before an “unprecedented” bank run led to its failure.
“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,” he said.
Becker was appearing alongside two executives from Signature Bank, which collapsed shortly after SVB.
They maintained the bank could have survived had regulators not chosen to close it.
California banking regulators moved quickly to shut SVB down on 10 March after depositors withdrew $42bn in 24 hours. Regulators closed Signature on 12 March after it also experienced liquidity issues following SVB’s collapse.
Becker’s account contrasts with those of regulators and banking industry executives who blamed SVB’s leadership for failing to manage interest rate risks or diversify the bank’s business beyond the highly concentrated tech sector in the Bay Area.
Becker said he did not believe “that any bank could survive a bank run of that velocity and magnitude”.
The Senate banking committee chair, Sherrod Brown, said the bank had repeatedly ignored warnings of “glaring risks” from federal and state officials.
“We know your banks were fatally mismanaged,” Brown said. “When you put other people’s money, and our broader economy, at risk, there must be accountability for that level of mismanagement.”
Becker, along with Signature Bank’s former co-founder and chair Scott Shay and former president Eric Howell, were appearing publicly for the first time since their firms collapsed, triggering a rare government intervention to backstop deposits.
Reuters contributed reporting
