A closer look at the New York-based bank that collapsed Sunday revealed some interesting advertising ideas.
Signature Bank, which denied then-President Donald Trump’s business in 2021 and was shut down by New York state regulators in the wake of the California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse, put out one particular ad, featuring a parody of the song “Some Nights” by fun., that attracted upwards of 735,000 views in a matter of hours.
“Is it surprising that Signature Bank failed?” Grit Capital founder Genevieve Roch-Decter captioned the video. “Their executive team spent millions of dollars to produce music videos & TV shows about themselves.”
“Try not to cringe as you watch this,” she added.
Is it surprising that Signature Bank failed?
Their executive team spent millions of dollars to produce music videos & TV shows about themselves
Try not to cringe as you watch this: pic.twitter.com/16K70FQq5o
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) March 13, 2023
CNBC reported that Signature Bank was deeply invested in volatile cryptocurrency and had $110.4 billion in total assets and $88.6 billion in total deposits as of the end of 2022. After Sunday’s move by state regulators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of the bank.
In the same Twitter thread, Roch-Decter said a former Signature Bank employee told her, “The Management Team was basically like the show, the Office. They’d waste money on things like producing parody videos.”
The finance expert posted another video from the NY lender — this time a sort of musical comedy sketch.
The execs also tried their hands at a comedy sketch/musical combo.
I'm speechless. pic.twitter.com/y3lWDCcSlp
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) March 13, 2023
“Who would have trusted their money to these guys after watching this video? This is a circus not a bank,” Roch-Decter captioned one last video, a parody of a Katy Perry song.
Who would have trusted their money to these guys after watching this video?
This is a circus not a bank. pic.twitter.com/UYXxyifD4b
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) March 13, 2023
SVB caught accusations of mismanagement, too; specially, the lender was apparently hyper-focused on so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and LGBT activism.
SVB reportedly failed to have someone in charge of risk assessment for some eight months, until January of this year, while the person in charge of risk assessment in the U.K. allegedly prioritized “pro-diversity initiatives” while neglecting her actual role, according to a Daily Mail report.
“This bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff, I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission,” Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Sunday.
Greg Wilson contributed to this report.
A previous version of this article referred to Jay Ersapah as the Chief Risk Officer for the SVB in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, based upon information included in the cited Daily Mail report. In fact, Ersapah was the Head of Financial Risk Management and Model Risk for Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited. We have updated our article to remove our reference to Ersapah because the Daily Mail has retracted its reporting relating to her.
Related: Latest Bank To Fail Refused Then-President Trump’s Business In 2021