Business

Biggest Bank In The US Scoops Up Execs From Failed Climate Bank

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JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., is hiring executives who worked for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the California climate financier whose collapse kicked off a banking crisis earlier this year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

JPMorgan has hired dozens of bankers who focus on startups and venture capital-backed firms, including former SVB President John China, who had worked for the firm for over 24 years, according to FT. SVB collapsed in a bank run in early March and had more than 1,550 climate technology firms as clients, many of whom were startups looking to take advantage of subsidies offered by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

While not all newcomers were former SVB bankers, notable hires include Rosh Wijayarathna, SVB’s former head of corporate finance for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Folake Shasanya, SVB’s former head of new and strategic channels for EMEA.

“It’s a very rare thing to have this monopolistic player go away overnight,” CEO of commercial banking at JPMorgan, Doug Petno, told FT. “We are open for business and we believe we can be the end-game winner.”

The U.S. banking titan enjoyed a 21% surge in earnings in the weeks following the March collapse and subsequent bailouts at SVB and fellow midsize lender, Signature Bank. In May, federal regulators seized First Republic Bank — which became the second largest bank to collapse in U.S. history in May — and sold it to JPMorgan.

JPMorgan has been growing its commercial bank globally since roughly 2019, which includes its teams centered around startups and venture-backed firms, although it only formalized an EMEA division this year, according to the FT. The company’s commercial bank has seen an increase in clients after the collapse of SVB left many startups looking for a new bank.