Tech

What next for Silicon Valley Bank and its customers?

Around 100 Irish firms had a banking relationship with the start-up-friendly bank that went bust last week – some of which had debt facilities and loans that came to tens of millions of euro

Silicon Valley Bank HQ in Santa Clara, California: after the bank’s collapse, US President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans over the country's banking system while insisting emergency measures would not be paid for by taxpayers, as additional banks came under stress. Picture: Getty

Daniel Campion first began to get a sense that something was wrong with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Thursday night last week, when his phone started to ping.

The co-founder and chief executive of Sitenna, a Limerick-headquartered tech company, was in a WhatsApp group with other business founders and the message was simple: ‘if you bank with SVB it would be wise to get your money out now.’

“It was a close thing,” Campion told the Business Post.