Californians make withdrawals from Silicon Valley Bank
MENLO PARK, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - A line began to form outside Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) around 8:00am Monday, an hour before the bank would officially open its doors. The owners of small mom-and-pop businesses stood shoulder-to-shoulder with tech CEOs.
"Everything we need to operate on we still have access to because it was in a different bank," said Elisa Spurlin.
Spurlin runs Peabody Gallery, a gallery and framing shop in Menlo Park. She had a rainy day bank account at SVB. At her parents' urging, she came to withdraw the money.
"We were fine. It was just an issue of, 'What are we going to do?' Like I said, we decided to take it out. And I was here this morning to take care of that," Spurlin added.
Unease and uncertainty
The collapse of SVB sent ripples of unease and uncertainty through the Bay Area's banking and tech industry, especially among customers who had more than $250,000 with the bank; the typical amount insured by the Feds.
"We were pretty worried over the weekend. We were watching the news constantly. I was checking Google like 20 times an hour," said Sam Liang.
Liang is the CEO of Otter.ai, a software startup that had several million dollars in deposits with the bank. He praised the White House's decision to guarantee all deposits regardless of the amount.
"It was definitely reassuring. I think this time the government moved really fast. They did a good job," Liang further spoke.
Limiting the financial fallout
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of San Jose said the White House's decision helped limit the financial fallout from SVB's sudden demise.
"It's very important that the stability has been brought not only to this bank but to the banking system," Lofgren spoke.
Spurlin said she's grateful to have access to her money, and to be able to move it to another bank where it's less vulnerable.
"People will get through the line; they'll get what they need. Things will settle down. And that's what I hope for; a quick settling down of everything," Spurlin expressed.
