‘No relation to SVB’ : India’s SVC Bank acts to calm depositors amid brand name confusion – Stock market news
MUMBAI (Reuters) – A little-known Indian bank has come forward to reassure depositors that their money is safe after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in California caused confusion and concern over a similarity in names.
Over the weekend, SVC Co-operative Bank of India (SVC Bank), issued a statement and sent messages in English and the local Marathi language to its customers in Mumbai saying that it has no no relationship with US lender.
“We ask our members, customers and other stakeholders not to pay attention to baseless rumors and malicious disappearances… that insinuate similarities in brand names,” SVC said in the a statement.
SVC, which has 198 branches across India, had total deposits of $2.23 billion in 2021-22. The statement said SVC has “robust and strong fundamentals”.
Sachin Mane, a branch manager at one of SVC’s branches near India’s financial capital Mumbai told Reuters on Monday that the lender acted as there were rumors circulating on social media about the financial strength of the bank.
“There were a few questions from customers but mostly they came from social media rumors … We wanted to communicate before a lot of people started asking or before it became a big issue,” Mane said.
“It’s just confusion.”
California banking regulators closed SVB on Friday after a crackdown on the lender, which had $209 billion in assets at the end of 2022, with depositors pulling out up to $42 billion in a single day, and with that’s how we solved it.
When one Twitter user asked SVC about “bank default rumours”, the Indian lender said “You have the wrong Twitter handle. We are SVC Bank … one of the leading co-operative banks and the strong in India with a heritage of 116 years. .”
There were no scenes of panic at two SVC branches in suburban Mumbai that Reuters visited on Monday, with account holders carrying out usual banking activities.
An account holder showed Reuters a message he received from SVC asking them not to believe any rumours.
“SVC Co-operative Bank Ltd. has no relationship with Silicon Valley Bank in California,” it stated.
(Reporting by M. Sriram in Mumbai; Additional reporting by Swati Bhat; Writing by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
By M. Sriram
