Silicon Valley Bank was one of the top 20 banks in the US, founded in 1983. It was the largest bank in the Silicon Valley area which is famous due to its tech and startup scene.

Unfortunately, the local regulators closed the bank on March 10, 2023, after it couldn't provide enough liquidity, and its stock on the market plummeted by 60% in two consecutive days. It's been the second biggest bank failure in the history of the US and the biggest one since the financial crisis in 2008.

‍
SVB was a major bank for many startups and tech companies. That includes companies like Roku, Circle, Roblox, and Etsy. According to Bloomberg, one of the companies with exposure to SVB was also Shopify.

Update (March 13, 2023): The US authorities just announced they will help the bank and depositors will have access to all of their money.

"Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13.  No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer."

Business as usual for Shopify merchants and partners 

After the Shopify name appeared in the news, many merchants and partners started to wonder if it would affect their relationships (payouts) with Shopify. Some of them actually claim their payouts are still pending, which is unusual.

Although there isn't any official communication from Shopify as a company, its founder and CEO, Tobbi Lutke, sent a strong tweet explaining that partners shouldn't worry as SVB was one of the twelve banks Shopify uses across Canada.

We have also contacted Shopify partner support, who confirmed the payouts won't be affected unless the partner has SVB as the receiving account.

"Only merchant who use Silicon Valley Account will be affected with this. On your payouts if you are using different bank account aside from the Silicon Valley Account, your payouts will not be affected."

If you use an SVB account to receive money from Shopify, the payouts will be on hold until you update the account to a different bank. As a partner (developer), you can do it by going to Settings > Payouts > Manage payout method. If you are a merchant (seller), you can update the payout method by going to Settings > Payments > Shopify Payments > Manage > Payout account > Change bank account.

We will monitor the situation closely and update the article with relevant information.