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| Gregory Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, leaned back in his chair at a technology conference last week in San Francisco’s luxurious Palace Hotel, and delivered a bullish message. |
| 上周，在旧金山皇宫精选酒店举行的一次技术会议上，硅谷银行首席执行官格雷戈里·贝克尔靠在椅子上，发表了十分乐观的看法。 |
| In the confident, almost bombastic, style that was his signature, Becker told the audience of investors, Wall Street analysts and technology executives that Tuesday afternoon that the future of the tech industry was sparkling — and so was Silicon Valley Bank’s place within it. |
| 周二下午，贝克尔以他标志性的自信、几近浮夸的风格告诉投资者、华尔街分析师和技术企业高管，科技行业拥有闪耀的未来——硅谷银行在其中的地位也是如此。 |
| What he didn’t say was that, roughly a week earlier, rating agency Moody’s had called to tell Becker that his bank’s financial health was in jeopardy, and its bonds were in danger of being downgraded to junk. Realizing the bank needed to raise cash, Becker had been scrambling since then to fix things. |
| 但他没有说的是，大约一周前，评级机构穆迪打电话告诉贝克尔，他的银行的财务状况处于危险之中，其债券有被降级为垃圾级的危险。贝克尔意识到银行需要筹集现金，从那时起就一直在忙于解决问题。 |
| That phone call set off a frantic scramble inside Silicon Valley Bank. Just one day after Becker projected confidence at the conference, the bank announced a $1.8 billion loss and a hastily put together plan to raise $2.25 billion in fresh capital. The news spooked the bank’s depositors and investors so much that on Thursday, its stock plummeted roughly 60% and clients pulled out roughly $40 billion of their money. |
| 那通电话促使硅谷银行内部在慌乱中紧急采取行动。就在贝克尔在会议上展示信心一天后，该银行宣布亏损18亿美元，并仓促制定了一项筹集22.5亿美元新资本的计划。这一消息令该银行的储户和投资者大为震惊，周四，其股价暴跌约60%，客户撤出了约400亿美元的资金。 |
| By Friday, Silicon Valley Bank was dead. |
| 到周五，硅谷银行倒闭了。 |
| The bank’s failure sent the stocks of more than a dozen small and midsize banks reeling on Monday, but they rebounded on Tuesday. But the rebound remains small compared to the scale of the losses inflicted in recent days. |
| 该银行的倒闭致使十几家中小型银行的股票在周一大跌，但在周二反弹。与最近几天造成的损失规模相比，反弹幅度仍然很小。 |
| The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which took over the bank, has since been trying to auction off all or parts of it. On Sunday night, the federal government said all customers would be made whole. |
| 接管该银行的联邦存款保险公司此后一直试图拍卖其全部或部分资产。周日晚上，联邦政府表示所有客户都将获得存款全额补偿。 |
| The tale of Silicon Valley Bank is one of ambition and management mistakes, of a CEO who talked so much about innovation and the future that he and his lieutenants didn’t pay enough attention to the mundane but enormously important work of managing risk and ensuring financial prudence. When the bank was caught flat-footed in a rapidly changing economic environment, it waited till the last minute to try to avert its fate. |
| 硅谷银行是一个雄心壮志和管理失误兼有的故事，其CEO过多地谈论创新和未来，以至于他和他的副手们没有足够重视管理风险和确保财务审慎的工作，这些工作十分枯燥但极其重要。当银行在瞬息万变的经济环境中措手不及时，它直到最后一刻才试图扭转命运。 |
| “This isn’t greed, necessarily, at the bank level,” said Danny Moses, an investor at Moses Ventures known for his role in predicting the 2008 financial crisis in the book and movie “The Big Short.” |
| “这不一定是银行层面的贪婪，”摩西风险投资公司的投资者丹尼·摩西说。他因在小说和同名电影《大空头》中对2008年金融危机的预测而闻名。 |
| “It’s just bad risk management,” Moses added. “It was complete and utter bad risk management on the part of SVB.” |
| “这就是差劲的风险管理，”摩西还说。“是SVB完全、彻底的烂风险管理。” |
| Becker could not be reached for comment. Former representatives of Silicon Valley Bank directed queries to the FDIC, which declined to comment. |
| 本文无法联系到贝克尔置评。前硅谷银行代表将问题转给联邦存款保险公司，后者拒绝置评。 |
| Silicon Valley Bank began in 1983 as a small community bank catering to fledgling tech companies. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, its fortunes and size grew along with the tech sector. |
| 硅谷银行成立于1983年，是一家小型社区银行，专门为新兴科技公司提供服务。在整个1980和90年代，它的财富和规模随着科技行业的发展而增长。 |
| After an ill-fated foray into real estate lending in the early 1990s, the bank returned to its roots, pitching its services to fast-growing but typically unprofitable companies during the internet boom. The bank also made a side bet on California wineries. |
| 在1990年代初进军房地产贷款领域遭遇失败之后，银行回归本源，将其服务推向互联网繁荣时期快速增长但通常尚未盈利的公司。银行还对加州的酒庄下了边注。 |
| Becker, who grew up on a farm in Indiana, joined the firm in 1993 shortly after graduating from Indiana University. He worked one year at another California bank in the early 1990s but otherwise spent his career at Silicon Valley Bank. |
| 贝克尔在印第安纳州的一个农场长大，于1993年从印第安纳大学毕业后不久进入公司。除了1990年代初期在加州另一家银行工作过一年，他的职业生涯的其余时间都在硅谷银行度过。 |
| By 2011, when Becker was named CEO, the bank had expanded to dozens of cities in America and worldwide. He saw an opportunity to woo startups and venture capitalists with new offerings. |
| 到2011年贝克尔被任命为首席执行官时，银行已将业务扩展到美国和全球的数十个城市。他看到了用新服务吸引初创企业和风险资本家的机会。 |
| “When Greg took over as CEO, he had a definitive vision for what he wanted Silicon Valley Bank to be,” said Timothy Coffey, a bank analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott. “He wanted to be the heart and soul of what we ended up calling the innovation economy.” |
| “当格雷格接任首席执行官时，他对想要如何塑造硅谷银行有着明确的愿景，”詹尼蒙哥马利斯科特公司的银行分析师蒂莫西·科菲说。“他想成为我们最终称之为创新经济的核心和灵魂。” |
| In that, Coffey said, he succeeded: “Nothing happened inside the Valley that didn’t involve Silicon Valley Bank.” |
| 科菲说，在这一点上，他成功了：“硅谷内发生的一切都与硅谷银行有关。” |
| Based in Santa Clara, California, the bank had at least five offices in the Valley area, with an aesthetic that one person described as “part stainless-steel tech vibe, part VC resort vibe.” Wine fridges dotted the offices. Visitors to the office on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, the heart of the Silicon Valley ecosystem, often remarked on the display of wines from the vineyards the bank had financed. |
| 银行总部位于加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉，在硅谷地区至少设有五个办事处，有人形容其审美就是“有点不锈钢科技范儿，又有点VC度假地风味”。办公室里散布着酒柜。去过位于硅谷生态核心地带的门洛公园沙山路上那家银行的人经常会注意到那里的葡萄酒展示，它们来自银行投资的葡萄园。 |
| From his earliest days as CEO, Becker kept a tight grip on the firm, said Adam Dean, a former president of SVB Asset Management who left more than a decade ago. “It was the church of Greg.” |
| 十多年前离职的SVB资产管理公司前总裁亚当·迪恩说，从担任首席执行官的最初几天起，贝克尔就一直牢牢控制着公司。“在那里格雷格说一不二。” |
| Becker positioned himself as a champion of innovation. In official bios, he described himself “an advocate for entrepreneurs, their investors and corporates in the innovation sector internationally.” He cultivated friendships with venture capitalists. |
| 贝克尔将自己定位为创新的拥护者。在官方简历中，他称自己是“国际创新领域创业者、投资者和企业的倡导者”。他与风险资本家建立了友谊。 |
| “Greg was always looking out five to 10 years,” said Coffey. “He was more of a VC than he was a banker.” |
| “格雷格总是在展望五年到10年后，”科菲说。“与其说是银行家，不如说他是风投家。” |
| For thousands of founders and their venture capital backers, SVB became the bank of choice. That was reflected in its swelling deposits: By the end of 2021, the bank held $189.2 billion in deposits up from $102 billion in 2020 and $49 billion in 2018. Its stock price roughly tripled from 2018 to 2021. |
| 对于数以千计的创始人和他们的风险资本支持者来说，硅谷银行成了首选。这反映在其不断膨胀的存款上：到2021年底，该银行持有1892亿美元的存款，远高于2020年的1020亿美元和2018年的490亿美元。从2018年到2021年，其股价大约翻了三倍。 |
| Flush with cash to invest, Becker began to build an investment banking business to advise companies on mergers and initial public offerings, deals that bring in big fees. The bank offered large pay packages to bankers from bigger rivals. It bought a Boston bank for $900 million to manage money for wealthy clients on the East Coast. |
| 贝克尔有了充足的现金可以投资，他开始建立投资银行业务，为企业并购和首次公开募股提供咨询，这些交易可以带来大笔费用。银行向那些为规模更大的竞争对手工作的银行家开出了高薪待遇。以九亿美元收购了一家波士顿银行，为东海岸的富有客户管理资金。 |
| Despite its growth in deposits, the bank struggled to find ways to make money off them. Banks typically invest customer deposits in a variety of assets that they can earn a return on, including a mix of long-term and short-term bonds issued by the government — a largely safe bet. |
| 尽管存款在增长，但银行在利用存款获利这件事上并不顺利。银行通常将客户存款投资于各种能够获得回报的资产，包括政府发行的长期和短期债券组合——这是一个基本安全的赌注。 |
| But SVB decided that government debt that came due over 10 to 30 years — and offered higher interest rates at the time — was a better bet than shorter-duration bonds, which paid less interest, according to analysts. So it made an outsize bet on long-dated bonds, a lack of diversity that increased its risk. |
| 但分析师们表示，硅谷银行认为，10至30年期的政府债券（当时利率较高）比期限较短的债券（利率较低）更值得押注。因此，它在长期债券上押下了巨额赌注，缺乏多样性的做法增加了风险。 |
| As of Dec. 31, SVB classified most of its debt portfolio, or roughly $95 billion, as “held to maturity.” Because of a quirk in banking regulation, the bank didn’t have to account for fluctuations in the value of those bonds on its balance sheet. |
| 截至12月31日，硅谷银行将其大部分债务投资组合（约950亿美元）归类为“持有至到期”。由于银行监管的某些习惯，该行不必将这些债券价值的波动计入其资产负债表。 |
| On average, banks with at least $1 billion in assets classified only 6% of their debt in this category at the end 2022. But Silicon Valley Bank put 75% of its debt as held to maturity, according to a research report by Janney Montgomery Scott. |
| 在2022年底，资产在10亿美元以上的银行平均只将6%的债务归为这一类别。但詹尼·蒙哥马利·斯科特的一份研究报告显示，硅谷银行将75%的债务列为持有至到期投资。 |
| By classifying most of its debt this way, SVB was able to mask its brewing troubles longer than it otherwise would have been. But as interest rates rose, investors recalculated where to put their money. Venture capital investing slowed down. Startups began to withdraw more money from their accounts. |
| 通过对其大部分债务这样归类，硅谷银行得以更长时间地掩盖酝酿之中的麻烦。但随着利率上升，投资者重新计算了投资方向。风险资本投资放缓。创业公司开始从他们的账户中提取更多资金。 |
| The bank’s conundrum: If it continued to give clients their money, SVB would be stretched for cash. But if it sold those long-term bonds, it would have to do so at a loss. Because newer bonds were paying more interest, buyers would purchase long-term debt at a discount from their value when SVB bought them. |
| 硅谷银行面临的难题是：如果继续向客户放款，银行将面临现金紧张的局面。但如果出售这些长期债券，就得承担损失。因为新债券支付的利息更高，买家会以硅谷银行购买时的折扣价购买长期债权。 |
| The problems weren’t immediately visible to analysts because losses on debt portfolios are considered paper losses — until they’re actually sold at a loss. |
| 分析师无法第一时间看到这些问题，因为债务投资组合的损失被认为是账面损失——直到它们真的被亏本出售。 |
| In late February, Becker, sat onstage in the dark theater of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, where SVB was co-sponsoring a conference. Asked by a reporter about the bank’s tanking bond portfolio, Becker said it had “zero intention” of selling its underwater securities. |
| 2月底，贝克尔坐在洛杉矶电影学院博物馆黑暗的剧院舞台上，硅谷银行正在这里联合主办一场会议。在被记者问及该银行不断下滑的债券投资组合时，贝克尔表示银行“完全无意”出售其亏本的证券。 |
| That plan would soon change. |
| 这个计划很快就变了。 |
| Shortly after Moody’s warned Becker of a potentially steep downgrade early in the week of Feb. 27, the bank reached out to Goldman Sachs, frantic that there could be a run on the bank if it didn’t shore up its finances, a person with knowledge of the deal said. It needed to sell some of its debt and raise new money from stock market investors. |
| 据知情人士透露，在2月27日这周早些时候，穆迪警告贝克尔，该行可能会被大幅下调评级，之后不久，银行联系高盛，心急火燎地表示，如果高盛不能出资支撑其财务运转，可能会发生挤兑。它需要出售部分债务，并从股市投资者那里筹集新的资金。 |
| Days after the Moody’s call, the bank said in a March 3 filing that it would be able to “sustain overall healthy client fund levels, despite balance sheet pressures from declining deposits, elevated client cash burn and overall market environment challenges.” |
| 在穆迪致电几天后，该行在3月3日的一份文件中表示，尽管“存款下降、客户现金消耗增加和整体市场环境挑战给资产负债表带来压力”，但银行仍能“维持客户资金水平的整体健康”。 |
| Last Wednesday, the bank issued a news release after the market closed, saying it had sold $21 billion of its debt at a loss of $1.8 billion and was looking to raise $2.25 billion in new equity. The investment firm General Atlantic said it would buy $500 million of the bank’s stock. |
| 上周三，硅谷银行在股市收盘后发布了一份新闻稿，称该行以亏损18亿美元的价格出售了210亿美元的债券，并计划通过增发新股筹集22.5亿美元。投资公司泛大西洋表示将购买该银行五亿美元的股票。 |
| That afternoon, and on Thursday, Goldman bankers started pitching investors on buying SVB shares. The announcement had spooked investors, who worried that the bank was in deeper trouble than it was letting on. When the markets opened on Thursday, the bank’s shares fell steeply. |
| 当天下午以及周四，高盛的银行家们开始劝说投资者购买硅谷银行的股票。公告让投资者产生了警觉，他们担心该银行的麻烦比它所表现出来的要严重。周四股市开盘时，银行的股价大幅下跌。 |
| Silicon Valley woke up to a blizzard of text messages, phone calls and Twitter posts about the bank’s mounting woes. Clients of the bank rushed to pull deposits. On Thursday alone, they withdrew $42 billion. |
| 一觉醒来，大量关于该银行问题不断恶化的短信、电话和推文在硅谷传开。银行的客户纷纷提取存款。仅周四一天，他们就提取了420亿美元。 |
| Late morning Pacific time, Becker got on a webinar with hundreds of investors and lawyers. The bank had plenty of liquidity, he said, but he ended the call with one caveat: If people began telling one another that SVB was in trouble, it would pose a challenge, according to people briefed on the call. |
| 太平洋时间接近中午的时候，贝克尔与数百名投资者和律师举行了网络研讨会。他说银行有充足的流动性，但据了解情况者说，他在电话会议结束时提出了一个警告：如果人们开始奔走相告，说硅谷银行遇到了麻烦，那就会构成一个挑战。 |
| But by Thursday afternoon, banking regulators including the FDIC were warning SVB that the bank might not survive, two people briefed on the negotiations said. The bank’s financial advisers raced to find a potential buyer, but none came forward. |
| 但两名了解谈判情况的人士表示，到周四下午，包括联邦存款保险公司在内的银行业监管机构都在警告硅谷银行，它可能无法生存下去。银行的财务顾问们忙着寻找潜在买家，但没人出手。 |
| On Friday morning, trading in its stock was halted. By that afternoon, the regulator had seized the bank. Becker’s nearly 30-year tenure at Silicon Valley Bank was over. |
| 周五上午，银行的股票停牌。当天下午，监管机构接管了这家银行。贝克尔在硅谷银行近30年的任期结束了。 |
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