Bank of England backs HSBC rescue of Silicon Valley Bank’s UK arm

 

London:  The UK government announced on Monday that it has facilitated London-based banking major HSBC to buy the embattled UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank for 1 pound, securing the deposits of more than 3,000 customers worth around 6.7 billion pounds.

Santa Clara, California-based Silicon Valley Bank – which specialised in lending to technology companies – was shut down by US regulators on Friday in what was the largest failure of a US bank since 2008.

According to experts, although the UK arm of SVB was small with only around 3,000 business customers, its collapse would have presented a risk for the tech sector which is seen as crucial to Britain’s economic growth.