Income Taxes Deferred Tax (Liabilities) Assets (Detail) (USD $)	Dec. 31, 2014	Dec. 31, 2013
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Operating Loss Carryforwards Foreign	$ 13,000,000sivb_OperatingLossCarryforwardsForeign	$ 19,000,000sivb_OperatingLossCarryforwardsForeign
Deferred tax assets:
Allowance for loan losses	80,554,000	69,616,000
Share-based compensation expense	15,249,000	14,535,000
Loan fee income	9,738,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsDeferredIncome	7,804,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsDeferredIncome
State income taxes	9,428,000sivb_DeferredTaxAssetsStateIncomeTaxes	6,194,000sivb_DeferredTaxAssetsStateIncomeTaxes
Net operating loss	8,641,000	9,682,000
Other accruals not currently deductible	7,601,000	4,869,000
Premises and equipment and other intangibles	1,344,000	734,000
Net unrealized losses on foreign currency translation	802,000	5,228,000
Research and development credit	324,000	324,000
Share-based compensation expense	0	27,686,000
Other	2,983,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOther	36,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOther
Deferred tax assets	136,664,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsGross	146,708,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsGross
Valuation allowance	(8,965,000)	(10,006,000)
Net deferred tax assets after valuation allowance	127,699,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsNet	136,702,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsNet
Deferred tax liabilities:
Net unrealized gains on available-for-sale securities	(29,600,000)	0
Nonmarketable securities	(27,858,000)	(55,921,000)
Derivative equity warrant assets	(19,090,000)	(10,344,000)
FHLB stock dividend	(1,230,000)	(1,236,000)
Other	0us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilitiesOther	(964,000)us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilitiesOther
Deferred tax liabilities	(77,778,000)us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilities	(68,465,000)us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilities
Net deferred tax (liabilities) assets	$ 49,921,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNet	$ 68,237,000us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNet

Deferred Tax Assets, State Income Taxes

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Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences from unrealized losses on foreign currency transactions.

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