Longtime Seattle-area tech mainstay Minh Le has joined Stifel Bank as managing director, following a 14-year career with Silicon Valley Bank.
“It’s been a wild last few weeks, and I couldn’t be more proud of my team and my colleagues for coming together to support our clients and partners through an incredibly difficult time,” Le wrote on LinkedIn.
Le was a market manager for Silicon Valley Bank’s Washington state region.
He will remain in Seattle as managing director at Stifel, a St. Louis, Mo.-based company that provides banking and lending services to individual and business clients. Stifel recently hired three former Silicon Valley Bank bankers to help bolster its venture lending business.
“I will be helping build out their Tech Banking practice and continue the important work we do supporting our ecosystem,” Le said.
Le’s former Seattle-based colleagues at Silicon Valley Bank, Ryan Kirschling and Christopher Berg, are also joining Stifel.
Le said he’s “so deeply grateful for the outpouring of support over the last few weeks.”
“It’s been uplifting and inspiring. And it has reinforced my belief in the amazing community I’ve had the good fortune of supporting throughout my ~18yrs in tech banking,” he said.
Silicon Valley bank collapsed last month, sending shockwaves through the tech industry and broader financial sector. Many tech companies and investors relied on the bank, which was popular among early-stage startups.
Against a backdrop of rising interest rates and scarce investment capital, Silicon Valley Bank’s shares plummeted after the firm said it would book a $1.8 billion loss related to securities sales.
After liquidity concerns prompted some venture capital firms to advise founders to pull their money out of the bank, investors and depositors withdrew $42 billion in deposits, leaving Silicon Valley Bank with a negative cash balance of $958 million, prompting regulators to step in and close the bank.
Some companies wondered if they would be able to access their cash and meet payroll. But the FDIC stepped in a few days later, protecting both insured and uninsured depositors.
Following the government takeover, Le asked customers to return to Silicon Valley Bank, writing on LinkedIn that there was “no safer institution to hold deposits at than SVB.”
Late last month First Citizens Bank agreed to purchase all deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bank. The FDIC still holds $90 billion in securities and other assets from Silicon Valley Bank.
