Employees of Silicon Valley Bank were given their annual bonuses on Friday just hours ahead of the seizure of the bank by regulators.
The payments were reportedly bonuses for work conducted last year and were already being processed in the days ahead of the collapse of the bank. In the past, the bank has paid its employee bonuses out on the second Friday of every March, sources claim.
In other words, it may be a coincidence that employees received their bonuses on the same day that the bank fell. The bank, which is based in Santa Clara, California, was in the midst of a bank run that was spurred by panicked investors when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized it at around noon on Friday.