Wall Street’s Old Guard Swoops In to Clean Up SVB Mess

Franklin Raines has a name for battle-tested Wall Street figures who get brought in to clean up the nastiest problems at the biggest institutions: “mega finance veterans.”

He would know.

Raines ran Fannie Mae for years, leaving under pressure before the home-loan giant collapsed in 2008 and was taken over by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. When US officials tapped Herb Allison as chief executive officer, Raines dropped him a line.

“I wished him luck,” Raines recalled in an interview. “It can be a lonely time.”

On Monday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. tapped one of their successors at Fannie ...