The UK government said customer deposits would be protected “without taxpayer support”.
“SVB UK customers will be able to access their deposits and banking services as normal from today,” it said in a statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, HSBC’s UK subsidiary will finance the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited, which is expected to close immediately. The deal excludes all assets and liabilities of parent company SVB.
The UK deal comes after the Biden administration took action to protect SVB customers from losses, announced on Sunday night that savers would have access to all their money by Monday morning, and approved an extraordinary intervention to prevent a crisis in the financial system.
Authorities said they also extended protections to depositors of New York’s Signature Bank, which state regulators closed on Sunday amid financial industry turmoil.
The British government, the Bank of England and UK financial regulators had been looking for a buyer for SVB’s UK subsidiary to protect the country’s tech sector for days. British start-ups rely heavily on the bank for funding, but found themselves in precarious waters after US regulators closed SVB on Friday, marking the second-largest bank collapse in US history.
Jeremy Hunt, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the government ‘worked urgently to’ deliver on a promise to ‘look after’ the industry and the bank’s clients.
The Bank of England said it approved the sale “to stabilize SVBUK”, ensure “the continuity of banking services”, minimize “disruption to the UK technology sector” and strengthen “confidence in the financial system”.
Jeff Stein, David J. Lynch, Tony Romm, Tyler Pager, and Julian Mark contributed to this report.
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