Top executives from Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank refused to commit to voluntarily handing back the millions of dollars they were paid before the collapse of their banks triggered a US regional banking crisis.

In their first public appearances since the two lenders were shut down by regulators in March, former SVB former chief executive Greg Becker, alongside ex-Signature executives Scott Shay and Eric Howell, were quizzed by members of the Senate banking committee over their roles in the recent failures.

Lawmakers including Elizabeth Warren, the progressive Democratic senator from Massachusetts, repeatedly asked Becker and Shay if they would return their pay to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which shouldered billions of dollars of losses following the collapse of the two banks.