Customers were seen lined up outside a Silicon Valley Bank location in Menlo Park, California, on Friday after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized the banks assets.
In the largest bank failure since 2008 financial crisis, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed after anxious depositors concerned by the bank's health rushed to withdraw their money.
Video captured on a smartphone shows a line of people waiting outside the bank, evoking scenes from the 1930s of a run on the banks during the Great Depression.
SVB was the 16th largest bank in the United States until it was shut down by California regulators Friday afternoon. The bank serviced a number of tech industry startups. Y Combinator, an incubator startup that launched Airbnb, DoorDash and DropBox, regularly referred entrepreneurs to them.
A person from inside Silicon Valley Bank, middle rear, talks to people waiting outside an entrance to Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California, Friday, March 10, 2023. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation seized the assets of the bank on F (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu / AP Newsroom)
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan called SVB's collapse was an “extinction-level event” for startup tech companies.
“I literally have been hearing from hundreds of our founders asking for help on how they can get through this. They are asking, âDo I have to furlough my workers?â” Tan told the Associated Press.
