(New York) Electronic trading on the title of the American bank SVB was suspended on Friday, indicated the American Stock Exchange NASDAQ, pending a communication from the establishment in the turmoil after the announcement, Wednesday, of an emergency capital increase.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) unscrewed by more than 60% on Thursday, investors worrying about large customer withdrawals, which pushed the bank to this capital increase and to sell in disaster a massive portfolio of financial securities.
According to the CNBC news channel, SVB is in discussions with other larger establishments to find a buyer.
Transactions were interrupted almost an hour before the opening of the Stock Exchange while, in electronic trading outside the session, the SVB share dropped again more than 60%.
Unknown to the general public until Wednesday, SVB is the 16e US bank by asset size.
It has made a name for itself by attracting many clients from the technology sector, start-ups and corporations.
With the slowdown in the tech sector, some of these customers have made large withdrawals in recent weeks, prompting the bank to launch a capital raise to strengthen its balance sheet.
It also freed up cash by selling 21 billion dollars of financial securities, which earned it a loss of around 1.8 billion dollars, considerable for a financial institution of this size.
The announcement of financial difficulties by a bank is likely to generate a phenomenon called bank panic, which pushes customers to ask to recover their deposits immediately and can lead to a spiral leading to the bankruptcy of the establishment.