Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) mentioned they’re ridding themselves of marketing campaign contributions associated to Silicon Valley Financial institution following the monetary establishment’s collapse.
Schumer has donated all SVB-related political contributions to charity, spokesperson Allison Biasott told CNBC. Recipients embody organizations based mostly in Schumer’s residence state, an unnamed supply informed the community.
(BuzzFeed, HuffPost’s guardian firm, banked with SVB.)
Schumer received $2,700 from the bank’s PAC in 2015, and $5,800 from CEO Greg Becker in June 2021, the utmost donation allowed, in keeping with Federal Election Fee filings. Becker and different SVB executives have been purged within the authorities takeover of the failed financial institution.
Becker additionally made a marketing campaign contribution to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who has not addressed the matter.
Warner is considered one of 17 Senate Democrats who voted with Republicans to abolish parts of the Dodd-Frank Act that strengthened financial institution rules following the 2008 monetary disaster. The 2018 invoice, signed into regulation by President Donald Trump, relaxed rules on midsized banks like SVB and New York-based Signature Financial institution, which collapsed Sunday.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has criticized Becker for pushing to ease the rules.
“You lobbied for weaker guidelines, received what you wished, and used this chance to greedily and incompetently abdicate your fundamental obligations to your shoppers and the general public — facilitating a near-economic catastrophe,” Warren wrote in a letter to the ex-CEO Tuesday.
“There may be a lot work to be accomplished to grasp the failure of SVB — and these efforts should begin with understanding your position within the rollback of banking rules that facilitated this failure,” Warren added.
Waters, a member of the Home Monetary Providers Committee, told Politico on Tuesday that she’s going to return the $2,500 contribution she received from the financial institution’s PAC in 2020, when she chaired that panel.
Silicon Valley Financial institution collapsed final week after depositors rushed to withdraw their cash. The U.S. authorities assured all deposits over $250,000 not coated by FDIC safety.
