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SVB's programmatic payment systems are back online
Latest up here: https://www.moderntreasury.com/svb-resource-center
Prior HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35113496
- kxter 4y agoNo more small providers. Going with the big leagues going forward. Hello J.P. Morgan Chase.
- q1w2 4y agoUntil 15 years from now when everyone makes the same old choices again because they get a better deal at the new untested banks.
- ksajadi 4y agoTheir site is understandably having a rough day but you can get wires initiated.
- chatmasta 4y agoBrex and Gusto have been nagging us to setup a new bank account, but is this urgently necessary if SVB ACH is operating normally now? What are other people doing? We'll obviously open a new account eventually but it doesn't seem urgent?
- londont 4y agoHi there, co-founder of Gusto here. To clarify — If you have not yet updated your bank account on file to another (see article), you will have to wire funds to Gusto in order to make payroll on time. Log in to the app, run payroll, and you’ll get a prompt with more details and the specific cut-off, but it’s usually 10am PST in the morning of payroll. In terms, of getting a new bank set up, I’ve seen people open bank accounts same-day with Mercury (online) or Chase (walking into a branch). Wiring funds from SVB to one of these banks should take <24hr to complete. But yes, you CAN initiate a wire transfer from SVB if you prefer to do that. Note that some SVB customers are seeing issues with the portal right now (probably given high traffic). Hope this helps. Oh, also we created this resource hub to help SVB customers with tips like the above: https://gusto.com/company-news/silicon-valley-bank-closure-resource-hub https://gusto.com/company-news/silicon-valley-bank-closure-r...
- chatmasta 4y agoGreat to hear from you! Thanks for the information. I'm a bit confused though. We have an ACH auto-pay schedule configured to take payment tonight (for payday on Wednesday). I thought ACH from SVB is still working. Is Gusto choosing not to process those payments? And if so, do you plan to eventually resume processing ACH payments from SVB? Since the ACH payment is scheduled for tonight, we were planning on seeing if it fails, and if it does, sending the wire tomorrow so it arrives by 11am on Wednesday as required.
- londont 4y agoThanks for the reply. That's right, if you use SVB you have the fund payroll through a wire transfer. The wire can come from any account (including an SVB account). ACH won't work.
- chatmasta 4y agoThanks. It would be nice if the dashboard reflected that instead of showing the ACH payment as scheduled for tonight, but of course I understand we're all working with little time or information. Also maybe you could update your FAQ to explain that Gusto will not attempt to process any ACH payments from SVB, despite them operating normally from the SVB side. At the moment the document only implies this and you need to read between the lines to understand why a wire is necessary. I also agree with the other commenter downthread that this is adding an unnecessary layer of complexity, but I understand why you might be doing it to avoid overdrawing an account that has been emptied. Still, I'm not sure this default opt-out is the best solution - maybe it would be better to ask those who did move money out of SVB to cancel their ACH schedule, rather than unilaterally ceasing ACH processing and asking those who didn't move money out of SVB to change their method of payment.
- londont 4y agoGood feedback. Working on clarifying how we message this. Thank you!
- HPMOR 4y agoIt is not urgent. All depositors assets, uninsured & insured, are being backstopped by the Treasury. No need to worry if your assets are being held by the FDIC receivership. Now, if your assets are at First Republic, there might be some concern, but I believe that the Treasury has sent a strong signal that depositors will be made whole.
- robertlagrant 4y agoWhat does "sent a strong signal" mean in reality?
- dmckeon 4y agoThis was pretty strong: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1337 https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1337
- HPMOR 4y agoYou're right, "sent a strong signal" is deliberately ambiguous, in the sense that there has not been a declared policy shift of the FDIC to protect uninsured deposits. However, given that SVB and Signature were not previously declared Systematically Important Banks, yet all of their depositors were made whole, should give depositors confidence that that the Federal Government will see they are protected. Now, whether the FDIC should make this a declared policy position remains to be seen, but I believe that would require congressional action.
- richardlblair 4y agoIf I was a founder in the US right now I'd be opening at least 1 other bank account today and getting at least half my funds into that account. I would also never operate without at least 2 bank accounts. Operating a business and having employees is a huge responsibility. If people are depending on you to manage the risk of your business so they can buy groceries it's important to take that as seriously as you can.
- chatmasta 4y agoWe are taking the responsibility seriously. We have payday on Wednesday and ACH configured with Gusto. They told us to send them a wire by 11am Wednesday, but this was prior to last night's announcement. So I'm wondering if this has changed. It's likely not possible to open an account at another bank, wire all our money from SVB to there, and then wire the money to Gusto by 11am on Wednesday. So in the interest of ensuring employees are paid, the fastest option will likely be using SVB. You're right that operating with two bank accounts now sounds like a good idea. We actually have that already because our structure involves a US parent corporation and a UK subsidiary, but the second bank account is in the UK (thankfully not with SVB UK, although ironically that's because we dragged our feet on moving to it).
- richardlblair 4y agoI didn't mean to imply you aren't taking it seriously. Just pointing out what I'd be doing today. Glad to hear you're focusing on getting that money flowing through to your employees. Sorry you're in this situation. I know how frustrating it can be when you have to enter a reactive state that takes your attention away from your core mission.
- Zetice 4y agoDoes Gusto/Workday make pulling from multiple banks transparent? Seems like a value add for them to add in a way to seamlessly pull evenly from multiple accounts, and doesn't immediately strike me as overly difficult from a technical perspective.
- rexreed 4y agoAlways have a backup. I have 2 corporate bank accounts (at least). Neither of them are SVB. Chase is solid. Avoid shiny objects. Startups have enough risk in their daily existence, the last thing you need is to introduce unnecessary risk. Be a revolutionary where it matters. Be boring, steady, and predictable everywhere else.
- chatmasta 4y agoBrex has been promoting their business checking account, and claims it's FDIC insured up to $2.25m. Anyone moving there?
- Karunamon 4y agoI would think twice about them after they unceremoniously cut off a bunch of their customers, followed by the higher ups responding to the outrage with lame PR corpspeak https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31772211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31772211
- rexreed 4y agoThey also dramatically and unilaterally devalued their rewards: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121124 as well as had a big layoff round: https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/11/fintech-brex-layoffs-restructuring/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/11/fintech-brex-layoffs-restr.... Be wary, manage your risk, don't overconcentrate, diversify.
- randoengy 4y agoMoved there last year, extremely happy with them.
- rexreed 4y agoPersonally, I'd stay with a "boring" bank for at least one account. You can always open more than one account. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Brex sure, but they could be a flash in the pan. Have "boring" banks as a backup. I bank with Chase and a local FCU in addition to anything else. Also, Brex isn't a bank. They make this very clear: https://www.brex.com/support/is-brex-cash-a-bank-account https://www.brex.com/support/is-brex-cash-a-bank-account You should read carefully for anything where you put your hard-earned money. "Brex Cash is not a bank account; it is a cash management account offered by Brex Treasury (a FINRA-registered broker-dealer) that functions very much like a business bank account. You can use your Brex Cash account to securely deposit checks (including via mobile app); send and receive payments via ACH, check, and wire—even internationally; and manage spend for your company’s different users. Brex Cash also allows you to choose how your money is stored. You can elect to keep your deposits at a Brex partner bank, and if you do, you’ll be eligible for FDIC insurance up to $2,250,000 in total. The other option is to invest your deposits into a government money market mutual fund. You can also use any combination of these two options. No matter how you choose to store your funds, your Brex account gives you unlimited corporate credit cards for secure, convenient spending. The cards are automatically paid daily like a debit card—while giving you cash back on every purchase and building your business credit. Note: Unlike debit cards, Brex cards cannot be used to make cash deposits or ATM withdrawals." Your FDIC insurance and exposure is entirely up to you at Brex.
- ladon86 4y agoNot urgent. With the government guaranteeing deposits, SVB might be the safest bank in America (at least for this week). I agree with others that you should be diversifying over the medium/long term, but I wouldn’t be racing to do that today.
- Alex3917 4y ago> SVB might be the safest bank in America Except for that you can't log into their website, they don't pick up their phones or answer their emails, etc.
- ladon86 4y agoWebsite is a bit flakey under load, but that's going so subside after today. I would recommend not YOLOing your money into multiple accounts today - rushed decisions are what got us here. If your immediate payroll issue is sorted, spend today and tomorrow working on a diversification and treasury plan with your team, then execute that over the next week or two. At this point, poorly configured wire transfers and scams are much more of a risk than your SVB balance going away.
- jacooper 4y agoSo the new DIND bank created by the FDIC is an actual bank? Not just some kind of temporary org until everyone withdraws their money?
- chatmasta 4y agoIt's quite bizarre and I'm also wondering this. I have no idea if it's possible to deposit into SVB. But they claim that the bank is operating normally.
- dgacmu 4y agoYes. The bank is now a bridge bank: https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23019.html https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23019.html This is a mostly fully functional bank designed to help smooth the transition for depositors away from SVB to their new permanent homes.
- invokestatic 4y agoThe DINB, as I understand it, is now closed and all assets moved to a new entity called Silicon Valley Bank, NA which is a “bridge bank” operated by the FDIC and should operate like any other bank does. Until another bank buys it.
- dougSF70 4y agoI am going to run payroll from my personal checking account because gusto wants a different bank to SVB. I will then wire funds from SVB to my personal account. Then I will find a new business banking provider.
- londont 4y agoHi there, co-founder of Gusto here. Running payroll from your personal account won't work. It has to be a business account. Please see below a msg I wrote earlier in the thread about some advice on how to get that done on time -- * To clarify — If you have not yet updated your bank account on file to another (see article), you will have to wire funds to Gusto in order to make payroll on time. Log in to the app, run payroll, and you’ll get a prompt with more details and the specific cut-off, but it’s usually 10am PST in the morning of payroll. In terms, of getting a new bank set up, I’ve seen people open bank accounts same-day with Mercury (online) or Chase (walking into a branch). Wiring funds from SVB to one of these banks should take <24hr to complete. But yes, you CAN initiate a wire transfer from SVB if you prefer to do that. Note that some SVB customers are seeing issues with the portal right now (probably given high traffic). Hope this helps. Oh, also we created this resource hub to help SVB customers with tips like the above: https://gusto.com/company-news/silicon-valley-bank-closure-resource-hub https://gusto.com/company-news/silicon-valley-bank-closure-r...
- dragonwriter 4y ago> gusto wants a different bank to SVB. Why the hell would they want a different bank than the one being run by the US government? The whole point of the herculean effort of a all-deposits-protected federal takeover is to prevent disruption of this kind by providing the firmest possible guarantees.
- churchill 4y agoI wonder why no one has said it yet but Mercury will come out the biggest winner from this mess. I can't estimate how the traffic from SVB > Mercury has been but I saw a post by Arc.tech saying they'd received hundreds of millions in deposits between 8 - 10 March. Given Mercury was a more popular contender, I'm going to bet they had an inflow of basically double-digit billions.
- Cryptokey199512 4y ago[dead]
- tempsy 4y agoWhy would anyone go from midsized public bank to opaque neobank if they're now spooked about bank solvency issues? The logical move is to go bigger eg JPM.
- jjeaff 4y agoMercury isn't really a bank. They are a nice, new UI that uses real banks behind the scenes. The main bank they use is Evolve bank and trust and has been around since 1987. But as of last year, they just had around $1B in assets under management.
- kyawzazaw 4y agoDoesn't this lead to concentration of asssets into bigger banks?
- swsieber 4y agoI'd probably move about 250k an opaque neobank if I'm spooked about to solvency issues.
- kentonv 4y agoBecause (apparently; I'm just reading from their web site) they deposit your funds into 12 separate accounts at 12 separate FDIC banks so you are insured up to $3M and a single-bank failure can at worst take 1/12 of your deposits. Seems like services like this should be more popular.
- epa 4y agoNo one cares about accounting controls until they need them. Let this be a lesson to all technical founders.
- TimTheTinker 4y agoI think there are a lot of good reasons accountants, not MBAs, should be the ones running companies. I work at a mid-size company (~550 employees) run by accountants. Their leadership and handling of the company is fantastic.