US bank regulator begins $460mn sale of SVB’s German assets

The US banking regulator has kicked off the sale of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank’s German operations, seeking bids by July 19 for the $460mn portfolio of loans, leases and other assets.

Details of the sale were disclosed in marketing materials sent to large investors in recent days by First Financial Network, the loans specialist handling the sale on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC, which confirmed the sale process, seized SVB on March 10 after a catastrophic deposit run at the California-based bank.

SVB collapsed after revealing that it had suffered huge losses on its securities portfolio. Its failure, which has been blamed on a combination of poor risk management, supervisory failures and rising interest rates, kicked off a spate of turmoil and deposit outflows at other regional banks. That fatally wounded Signature Bank then First Republic, which was seized by the FDIC and sold to JPMorgan Chase on May 1.

SVB’s UK subsidiary was sold to HSBC for £1 on the same weekend its parent went down, and the bulk of the US operations were sold to First Citizens in late March. But the German business, which operated as a branch, remained with the FDIC.

The regulator plans to open a data room on the German branch to qualifying bidders on June 20.

Bidders must be authorised to lend in the German market, the marketing material says. They could include a bank licensed to operate in Germany, the EU and European Economic Area countries, or a non-EEA licensed bank that has a German branch.

The assets include loan balances of $460mn and commitments for a further $494mn of lending “as well as other assets in Frankfurt and Berlin”.

The regulator has separately hired BlackRock to sell $114bn in securities that it inherited from SVB and Signature, which was shut down the same weekend as SVB.

A spokesperson at the FDIC said the sale marks the latest step in its efforts to resolve the failed bank in an “orderly and gradual manner”.

First Financial Network declined to comment.