Three days later he was in office Silicon Valley BankGovernment-appointed CEO Tim Maiopoulos has a message for his high-powered VC and startup clients: Get your money back.
This was consistent throughout Mayopoulos’ responses as he fielded over 400 questions from interested customers in 30 minutes scaling call on Wednesday.
“There is no safer place in the U.S. banking system to put deposits,” Mayopoulos said during the call, which was attended by CNBC and first reported. He urged customers to return their funds to the bank and immediately report any problems with incoming and outgoing electronic transfers to their liaison departments, which has worried many corporate executives who were unable to withdraw their deposits from the bank last week.
Mayopoulos was joined by SVB chief operating officer Phil Cox, the only executive from the core C-suite team left. SVB’s former CEO and CFO are no longer with the bank, Maiopoulos said during the call.
While Maiopoulos appeals to current and former customers, it is unclear how long he will remain in his current job, as the bank is currently regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Maiopoulos said he did not know what SVB’s “exact end state” would look like and listed three possibilities: recapitalization, sale or liquidation.
The recapitalization will allow SVB to continue to exist as an independent enterprise. But such an opportunity depends on the activation of another financial institution or group of investors.
“I understand that I’m new to this scene,” Maiopoulos said in a direct response to the concerns of venture capital firms. “You’ve been patient with us as we’ve gone through some of these operational difficulties. All I’d like to ask is that you give us a chance to earn back your trust and confidence.”
Maiopoulos’ offer was aimed at venture capitalists, who took to social media in droves to express shock and dismay at the collapse of a prominent Silicon Valley institution. During the conversation, Maiopoulos repeatedly mentioned the “innovation economy” and the startup ecosystem, in which “Silicon Valley plays an important role.”
Customer feedback will be critical in determining the bank’s future, Maiopoulos said during the call. Input “from customers, venture capital and the business community” would shape the timeline for SVB’s eventual exit from government control.
“One of the things I want to convey to you is that you have some power in this, that you can actually vote, at least to send clear signals that you want the outcome of this process, said the CEO in his prepared remarks. “If our customers choose to take their deposits and keep them in other institutions, that clearly limits the range of options we have in terms of the bottom line.”
SVB’s longstanding relationship with Silicon Valley’s most elite venture capital firms is mutually beneficial and symbiotic.
From its founding at the poker table until last week’s near-fatal attack on the bank, SVB has focused on risk in a market that most traditional banks shunned. SVB has found its niche in venture debt, financing companies that need cash infusions, especially between financing rounds.
In exchange for a future payment, often equity or warrants in the company, SVB has become a huge player in venture debt, spanning from software and the Internet to life sciences and robotics.
For more than 40 years, SVB has grown with its depositors, building a profitable mortgage business and a suite of private banking products that have enabled it to retain and charm the founders whose fortunes the bank helped create.
From legacy businesses like Cisco to more modern technology companies like DocuSign and Roku, SVB focuses on providing financial and banking services at all stages of growth.
“There are other places that do venture debt, but Silicon Valley Bank was the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room,” said Ami Cassar, CEO of business lending consultant Multifunding.
Exclusivity contracts, meaning an ironclad promise that the company would keep all of its money with SVB, were a key aspect of these financing arrangements. When SVB failed, it shook startups that traded the flexibility of banking for liquidity. Some fled the bank, defying their orders not to turn on the lights and not to release their paychecks.
When asked about potential exclusivity violations, Maiopoulos noted that he understands the extreme measures taken by startups.
“Given the change in circumstances and what the FDIC has done with insurance coverage, we would very much like to work with our customers to get those deposits back to us,” the CEO said during the call.
Returning customers won’t have to worry about the consequences of breaking their covenants, Maiopoulos suggested. He did not say what would happen to former customers who did the same.
— CNBC’s Kat Clifford contributed to this report.
