WAUKESHA, Wis. — Leaders with the online shop Etsy warned sellers the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank may delay payments.
That is causing a small business owners in Waukesha to worry. The fallout of the largest bank default since the 2008 financial crisis is trickling down to a Waukesha mom’s small business, which she relies on to support her family.
“It gives me a creative outlet that I wouldn't get otherwise,” said Rebecca Myers of RMM Designs WI. “I enjoy being able to do this for my family and be able to give us the lifestyle we would like to have.”
Instead of Rebecca Myers working on customer t-shirts or watch bands for her online shop RMMDesignsWI, she is on Etsy’s service chat line, and not getting the answer she’d hoped for, reading to us, “Our payment delay is due to recent developments at Silicon Valley Bank… We are working with our other payment partners to issue sellers' payments as soon as possible.”
Myers reacted after reading, “It gives me a little bit of doubt that there won't be an issue in the future…”
On Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over and closed Silicon Valley Bank to protect deposits, causing long lines of panicked people waiting to pull out all of their money. Federal regulators promised depositors will have access to their money.
In a statement sent to TMJ4 News Monday, Etsy says less than one percent of their active seller base had their payments delayed Friday and, "We are working to pay those sellers today and we've already started processing payments via another payment partner this morning."
Myers feels lucky she set up automatic deposits from Etsy as soon as she makes a sale, “I have a toddler so being able to feed them, keep my business going in general, there's a lot of money I have to put into my business in order to get the money out of.”
Myers is also relieved to have a full-time job besides her small business to help support her family. She also has her own website where she can sell personalized goods, but worries about others.
