Market Intelligence

A Seminal Story of Modern Banking In 1996, a group of investors led by a former vice president of Goldman Sachs & Co., Dennis Frank, recapitalized a tiny, ailing industrial loan company based in La Mesa, California, a suburb of San Diego. Twenty-six years later, Silvergate Capital Corp. is one of the highest flying publicly traded banks in the United States. Since going public in 2019, its shares have returned 918%. A performance like this raises eyebrows in an industry where fast growth often translates into future credit losses. Yet, Silvergate may avoid this fate. To understand why, it helps…