300 Arizona jobs likely impacted after Silicon Valley Bank seized in largest bank failure since 2008

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5/CNN/AP) -- Up to 300 Arizona jobs are on the line after bank regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank on Friday in the largest bank failure since the Great Recession.

The bank was listed as one of the largest commercial banks in the United States and was reportedly the biggest bank for local deposits in California’s Silicon Valley. Regulators in California appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as the receiver after its parent company, SVB Financial Group, was seeking a sale after selling billions of dollars of assets to make its customers whole and sparking panic on Wall Street this week.

In 2019, the bank expanded into a location in Tempe, not far from the Arizona State University campus, as it sought to enter into new markets and the fast-growing tech sector in the state. At the time, more than 300 employees were expected to join the company by late 2022.

SVB, a relatively unknown bank outside of Silicon Valley, lends to higher-risk tech startups that have recently been hurt by higher interest rates and dwindling venture capital.

The bank partners with nearly half of all venture-backed tech and healthcare companies in the U.S., many of which pulled deposits out of the bank as rising interest rates raised concern that the bank may not be able to get all its customers’ money back if they pulled their deposits en masse.

On Thursday, as bank stocks around the world fell in response to the crisis at SVB, contagion fears spread on Wall Street. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman compared the situation at SVB to the final days of Bear Stearns, the first bank to collapse at the start of the 2007-08 global financial crisis.

Calls to the bank’s Tempe location went unanswered Friday morning. According to the FDIC, “Customers with accounts in excess of $250,000 should contact the FDIC toll-free at 1-866-799-0959.” Silicon Valley Bank is the first FDIC-insured institution to fail this year.

CNN’s Allison Morrow contributed to this report.