PNC decides not to bid on Silicon Valley Bank as regulators struggle to find rescue buyers, source says

PNC Financial Group decided against bidding on Silicon Valley Bank as regulators struggled to find a buyer for the failed bank’s assets over the weekend, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Pittsburgh, Penn.-based bank sent an initial notice of interest to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for a deal for SVB and held brief and preliminary discussions with the agency, the source said.

However, after conducting initial due diligence, PNC informed the FDIC on Saturday that it decided not to move forward, the source said.

The FDIC was conducting an auction for SVB this weekend, with final bids due Sunday, according to a report from Bloomberg News. The regulators shuttered SVB on Friday and seized its deposits in the largest U.S. banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis — and the second-largest ever.

On Sunday evening, the Federal Reserve, FDIC and Treasury Department announced a plan to guarantee the uninsured depositors at SVB get their money back. The move suggests that other potential buyers also passed on buying SVB.