Investment Securities - Qualified Affordable Housing Projects (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Investments in Affordable Housing Projects [Abstract]
Investments in qualified affordable housing projects, net	$ 458,476	$ 318,575
Other liabilities	302,031	205,685
Investment Holdings [Line Items]
Tax credits and other tax benefits recognized	35,037	24,047	$ 17,296
Amortization expense included in provision for income taxes	$ 28,267	18,876	$ 17,362
Low Income Housing Tax Credit Funds
Investment Holdings [Line Items]
Cumulative effect adjustment		$ 3,800

Amount of affordable housing tax credits and other tax benefits recognized.

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 740
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116633289&loc=SL49122993-202985

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AffordableHousingTaxCreditsAndOtherTaxBenefitsAmount
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of investment in qualified affordable housing projects.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 740
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116633289&loc=SL49122993-202985

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AmortizationMethodQualifiedAffordableHousingProjectInvestments
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of amortization expense of investment in qualified affordable housing projects.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 740
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116633289&loc=SL49122993-202985

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AmortizationMethodQualifiedAffordableHousingProjectInvestmentsAmortization
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of the difference between reported income tax expense (benefit) and expected income tax expense (benefit) computed by applying the domestic federal statutory income tax rates to pretax income (loss) from continuing operations, attributable to increase (decrease) in the income tax rates.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 13
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84230637&loc=d3e32698-109319

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 15
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116821951&loc=d3e32059-109318

Reference 3: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 12
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84230637&loc=d3e32687-109319

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeTaxReconciliationChangeInEnactedTaxRate
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_InvestmentHoldingsLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_InvestmentsInAffordableHousingProjectsAbstract
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of commitment or contingent commitments to qualified affordable housing project investments.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 740
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (e)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116633289&loc=SL49122993-202985

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_QualifiedAffordableHousingProjectInvestmentsCommitment
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_InvestmentTypeAxis=sivb_LowIncomeHousingTaxCreditFundsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: