What’s in a Name? Classifying Securities at Silicon Valley Bank

On March 17, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank Financial Group (SVBFG) declared bankruptcy. It had reported net income in 2022 of $1.6 billion, and KPMG had just signed the audit report for SVBFG on February 24, giving it a “clean bill of health.” Yet, on March 8, the company announced that it would record a $1.8 billion loss in the first quarter of 2023, resulting from the sale of “substantially all of its available for sale securities portfolio,” and that it planned to issue common and preferred stock to raise capital. Its stock plummeted on the news. And just nine days later, it filed for bankruptcy. Lidia, an analyst at another investment bank, is tasked with developing a concise report on SVBFG to distribute firmwide the following week. This case presents an overview of SVBFG’s assets and structure and the financial context in which it declared bankruptcy. At the Darden School of Business, it is taught in the first-year MBA elective, “Financial Reporting and Analysis”; it would also be suitable in a module covering intermediate or advanced accounting topics.