Signature Bank clients look to Cross River Bank
Signature, SVB taken over by regulators
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is having a trickle-down effect on fintechs and banks within the financial services industry, but Cross River Bank is not one— in fact, the bank is swooping in to capture business amid the fall of its competitors.
For example, the $9.2 billion Ft. Lee, N.J.-based bank was selected by Boston-based global internet finance company Circle amid the crash of its banking partner, according to a tweet from Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire. The fintech first selected Signature Bank as its lead financial institution to hold its deposits in April 2022, according to a Circle release.
Circle’s USDC operations will open for business on Monday morning, including with new automated settlement via our new partnership with Cross River Bank. https://t.co/ybkSEedzrC
— Jeremy Allaire – jda.eth / jdallaire.sol (@jerallaire) March 13, 2023
CRB fintech clients
Cross River Bank’s existing fintech clients include:
- Payments fintech Stripe;
- Card issuer Visa;
- Buy- now, pay-later platform Affirm;
- Mortgage loan provider Rocket Loans;
- Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase; and
- AI lending platform Upstart.
CRB has ‘no concerns’
Cross River has been largely untouched by S.V.B.’s freefall due to the banks having “very different” business models, Keith Vander Leest, head of payments at Cross River Bank, told Bank Automation News.
While S.V.B. took deposits at a lower rate and lent them out at a higher rate, Cross River Bank originates loans but does not hold them on its balance sheet, preferring to keep its balance sheet at less than $10 billion, Vander Leest said.
“Many clients would use both [Cross River and S.V.B.] … They would use S.V.B. for their corporate bank where most of their cash and deposits were held,” he said. “That’s not Cross River’s model. Our CEO says, ‘We’re in the business of moving money, not storing money.’”
The difference in the business models of the two banks has left Cross River Bank executives with “no concerns” about the collapse of S.V.B., Vander Leest said, adding that Cross River is taking in deposits to help partners who held accounts with S.V.B.
