Embattled Banks Donated $1.2M to Democrats While Giving Less Than $750K to Republicans, According to Fundraising Data

SVB, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse have donated more than $1.2 million to Democrats in the last three election cycles while giving less than $750,000 to Republicans over the same period, according to a report by transparency group OpenSecrets.

The data reveals that all three banks spent heavily to ensure their favored candidates took office, with the banks donating to successful Senate campaigns, including those of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Joe Manchin, and Jon Tester.

The banks also donated $89,322 to the Democratic National Committee since 2017 and offered five-figure donations to reelection campaigns for Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Sean Patrick Maloney and Gregory Meeks of New York.

On the other hand, the banks collectively donated $198,926 to Joe Biden’s successful run in the 2020 presidential election while giving just $17,597 to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, and $5,516 for his initial run in 2016.

The report also shows that the banks provided small donations to some pseudo-Republican committees, including the Lincoln Project, which received just under $10,000 since it was founded in 2019.

The data comes as SVB and Signature Bank collapsed within days of each other, spurring billions of dollars in losses and investigations into the collapses by the Justice Department and SEC.

Credit Suisse’s shares also hit a record low after disclosing certain material weaknesses in their internal controls over financial reporting had been detected, leading bank brass to categorize analyses that had been carried out over the past two years as not effective.

SVB’s customers remain upset over their deposits, which, if over $250,000, are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Roughly 88 percent of all deposits at SVB were uninsured.

News about the questionable leadership in both SVB and Signature is still coming to light, as it was revealed that only one member of SVB’s board of directors had a career in investment banking, while the others were major Democratic donors.

CEO Gregory Becker and CFO Daniel Beck both sold their shares two weeks before the bank’s panicked customers made a run for their cash, causing the bank to sell $21 billion of its securities portfolio at a loss of $1.8 billion.

Similarly, Signature Bank was shut down and taken over by the New York Department of Financial Services due to a crisis of confidence in execs’ leadership.