“Long back by selling to other private investors, SVB exited fully with handsome returns on their total investment of only $1.7 million,” Sharma tweeted.
Sharma’s clarification comes following a news report that said SVB had made investments to the tune of $7.42 billion in One 97 Communications and its fintech platform Paytm.
Sharma said Silicon Valley Bank was one of the early investors in Paytm parent.
SVB, part of the SVB Financial Group, largely focuses on lending to technology companies, providing multiple services to venture capital, and private equity firms that invest in technology and biotechnology. Besides, it also offers private banking services to high-net-worth individuals.
The bank had announced a $1.75 billion share sale to plug a $1.8 billion loss that it incurred from selling a $21 billion bond portfolio consisting mostly of US Treasuries. This raised eyebrows and triggered questions about the bank’s ability to run the business.
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The collapse of Silicon Valley’s largest commercial bank is viewed to be the biggest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. Gauging the contagion it could cause to the entire system, California banking regulators moved quickly to shut it down. Share price of the bank crashed more than 60% for two consecutive days and eroded significant wealth of investors.
About 89% of the bank’s $175 billion in deposits were uninsured as of 2022, Reuters reported.
The FDIC is racing to find another bank over the weekend that is willing to merge with Silicon Valley Bank, according to reports.
While this is a big hole in the system, particularly at a time when rates are rising and the economy is slowing down, experts don’t see it having any impact on the Indian banking system.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)