SVB itself knows which assets it has, and therefore the FDIC knows. They then send out invitations to bid to banks with the list of assets as an attachment. ED

SVB itself knows which assets it has, and therefore the FDIC knows. They then send out invitations to bid to banks with the list of assets as an attachment. EDIT: It's not only the assets that are being bid on, the curator could just sell those themselves. But SVB has (even now) some amount of intangible value in terms of relations with customers, built up expertise in serving startups, etc etc. A bank looking to diversify into providing banking services for startups might be willing to bid more for such expertise and customer lists than a bank which is happy with the customer base it has. So I'd expect it would be mostly the intangibles which drive the potential differences in bids, with the market price of the assets merely serving as floor.