Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse sparks fears of wider chaos

Silicon Valley Bank(SVB) was the biggest USA lender to collapse. The company's operations abruptly came to a halt on Friday as California banking regulators moved fast  to shut it down in what became the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. Greg Becker, the chief executive officer who presided over the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, joined the company three decades ago as a loan officer. The executive sent a video message to employees on Friday acknowledging the "incredibly difficult" 48 hours leading up to the bank's collapse.

The second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008 has raised the specter of widespread layoffs at start-ups and broader instability in the U.S. financial system. SVB’s woes stem from the sharp rise in interest rates that began last year and undermined the profitability of its large bond position. As per information, two of Silicon Valley Bank’s top chiefs dumped millions of dollars worth of stock just two weeks before the firm collapsed Friday. CEO Greg Becker offloaded over $3.5 million worth of stocks — which amounted to nearly 12,500 shares — in a pre-planned, automated sell-off on Feb. 27. That same day, the bank’s third-in-command CFO Daniel Beck sold $575,180 in stocks.Silicon Valley Bank, the once leading tech lender, was shut down by federal authorities just 11 days later.