The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) is exploring legal options after the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp seized deposits held at Silicon Valley Bank's branch in the territory, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a government official.

Cayman Islands minister of financial services and commerce André Ebanks met with some of SVB's depositors in Hong Kong last week and told them financial regulator CIMA has retained lawyers and is looking for ways to help them, the report said, citing meeting attendees.

CIMA did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

California regulators shuttered Silicon Valley Bank in March and First Citizens BancShares purchased the bank with the help of FDIC in a deal that drained $20 billion from an insurance fund financed by banks and run by the government.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Shinjini Ganguli)