In testimony prepared and released Monday by the Senate Banking Committee, Becker said he believed the bank had responded to regulators’ concerns about risk management and worked to resolve the issues before a bank run “without precedents” will cause its bankruptcy.
“SVB’s bankruptcy has been personally and professionally devastating, and I sincerely regret how it has affected SVB’s employees, customers and shareholders,” he said.
Becker’s account contrasts with that of banking sector regulators and executives, who have blamed the SVB leadership for its inability to manage rate risks or diversify the business beyond the highly concentrated technology sector. San Francisco Bay.
Becker said he did not believe “that any bank could survive a bank run of that speed and magnitude.”
On Tuesday at 14:00 GMT he will testify before the Senate Banking Committee alongside former SVB co-founder and Chairman Scott Shay and former Chairman Eric Howell in his first public appearance since bankruptcy, which triggered an unusual government intervention to back deposits.
Former executives at New York-based Signature Bank, which also went bankrupt in March, argued the bank could have survived had regulators not chosen to shut it down, according to separate testimony.
