California bank regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10
MUMBAI:
Indian startups had about $1 billion in deposits with a troubled Silicon Valley bank, and the country’s deputy IT minister said he had offered local banks to give them more loans going forward.
California banking regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 after taking action against the $209 billion-asset lender at the end of 2022.
Depositors pulled out $42 billion in one day, making it insolvent. Finally, the US government acted to ensure that depositors had access to all their funds.
“The question is, how do we make startups transition to India’s banking system in the next month, rather than depending on the complex cross-border US banking system with all its uncertainties?” India’s Minister of State for Technology Rajeev Chandrashekhar said in a tweet on Thursday evening.
Hundreds of Indian startups have invested more than $1 billion in SVB, Mr. Chandrashekhar said.
Mr. Chandrashekhar said this week he met more than 460 stakeholders, including startups affected by the SVB closure, and took their suggestions to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Indian banks can offer deposit-backed credit lines to startups with funds in SVB, using them as collateral, Chandrashekhar said, referring to one of his proposals to the Finance Minister.
India has one of the world’s largest start-up markets, with multibillion-dollar valuations in recent years and the support of foreign investors who have made bold bets on digital and other technology businesses.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published on a syndicated channel.)
