Staff got bonuses just before crash

Silicon Valley Bank workers reportedly received their annual bonuses just hours before the financial institution collapsed, and ahead of an expected Monday-morning run by customers desperate for their cash.

Employees who agree to stay on with the failed bank also will receive 1.5 times their normal pay for the next 45 days, with hourly workers getting double their normal rate, Axios reported Saturday.

The bonuses, for work performed during 2022, were doled out Friday to workers in the US, the outlet said. Bonuses for employees in other countries are scheduled for later this month, it said.

The bank traditionally awards bonuses on the second Friday in March, and the payments had been in the works for days, CNBC said.

It’s unclear how much cash was distributed, but NBC said the bonuses likely ranged from $14,000 each for associates to $140,000 apiece for managing directors, based on figures posted on the Glassdoor website.

Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reportedly emailed an unknown number of workers at the bank Friday evening and offered them temporary jobs.

“It’s our standard practice to ask retain [sic] bank employees to assist with an orderly transition as part of our resolution process,” an FDIC representative told Axios.

In 2019, Bloomberg reported that SVB workers were the highest-paid among all US public banks, raking in an average of $250,683 each in 2018.

Reports on Saturday also said bank execs, including CEO Greg Becker, recently sold millions of dollars worth of stock in parent company SVB Financial Group.

Becker dumped nearly 12,500 shares for more than $3.5 million Feb. 27, the same day that Chief Financial Officer Daniel Beck unloaded $575,180 worth of company stock.

The share price dropped more than 60% on Thursday.