A familiar face from a past economic disaster could be on the verge of profiting off the current Silicon Valley Bank calamity.
SVB, taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation at the request of California regulators, is arguably the second-biggest bank failure of its kind in America — but that clearly doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to capitalize off of its collapse.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the managers of the investment banking arm of Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Securities, are seeking a “management buyout of the business.”
They are reportedly looking to expedite a deal because regulators are looking for a buyout of the remnants of SVB Financial Group.
SVB Securities, its own separate entity, is concerned about hemorrhaging talent due to the bank’s collapse.
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Bloomberg noted that SVB has “spent heavily in recent years hiring talent across Wall Street to build a competitive investment banking franchise.”
Indeed, looking at SVB Securities’s “About” page reveals a list of impressive careers and résumés up and down its roster of C-level executives, including that of SVB Securities Chief Administrative Officer, Joseph Gentile.
If that name sounds at all familiar to you, that’s because you were paying attention to the financial crisis of 2008.
As Fox Business noted, during those tumultuous economic times, Lehman Brothers’ Global Investment Bank collapsed.
Was the SVB collapse due to negligence?
Yes: 94% (340 Votes)
No: 6% (20 Votes)
And who was the Chief Financial Officer of Lehman just a year before the whole institution went bankrupt?
The revelation caused an uproar of cynicism and snark on social media:
Just in case you thought you were bad at your job, Silicon Valley Bank’s $SIVB Chief Administrative Officer Joseph Gentile was the former CFO of Lehman Brothers 😂💀 pic.twitter.com/SLbNdWw1BR
— Stock Talk Weekly (@stocktalkweekly) March 12, 2023
Joseph Gentile is batting 1000 in major bank blow ups — current Chief Admin Officer at SVB and was CFO at Lehman at time of its collapse pic.twitter.com/02YKtcvWGG
— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) March 11, 2023
SVB CHIEF ADMINISTRATION OFFICER WAS THE CFO AT LEHMAN BROTHERS’ GLOBAL WHEN IT COLLAPSED IN 2007 bad luck
— FXHedge (@Fxhedgers) March 11, 2023
SVB appears to be causing as much drama in its demise as it did when it was collapsing.
Not only has the Gentile revelation set off social media, a different report from the weekend claimed that two top officials of SVB had planned significant sell-offs of their stock prior to the bank’s collapse.
Additionally, a separate report said that SVB’s only risk assessment officer was more focused on “woke” initiatives than any pending financial failure.
