Remote work blamed for SVB collapse

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After the March 10 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), information about the company’s operation has been coming to light, including reports that most of the financial institution’s 8,500 staff were working remotely up until the moment regulators with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized the bank.

According to the Financial Times, one former banker said, “Some people worked from Miami, some moved to Las Vegas or a cabin in the woods and did the digital nomad thing

A former SVB executive said, “This is a west coast bank that operates at the heart of innovation and is . . . empathetic and dependent on relationships. It is not cut-throat like Goldman Sachs.”

The bank’s top leadership worked from home including Greg Becker, SVB’s CEO, who was working from Hawaii. Its president, Mike Descheneaux, was working from Florida, and Laura Izurieta, the company’s chief risk officer, was working from a home in the Washington suburbs.

“If our time working remotely has taught us anything, it’s that we can trust our employees to be productive from wherever they work,” the company’s career site said.

Last month, SVB included in its annual report the massive number of employees working from home as a risk to the business.

The bank “may experience negative effects of a prolonged work-from-home arrangement,” the report stated.

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