Collapse of SVB, Signature Bank Tests FDIC's Executive Reserve Corps

Tim Mayopoulos was squashed into a middle seat in coach on his flight to San Francisco, the only one available when he booked that afternoon. The Wi-Fi wasn’t working, so he pulled out a notepad to jot down what he would say to employees when he started his new job as chief executive of the failed Silicon Valley Bank the next morning.

Around the same time that Sunday evening, Greg Carmichael walked into Signature Bank’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters. The employees on site had just learned the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seizing the bank and booting its chief executive. Mr. Carmichael was in charge now.