Silicon Valley Bank is sold to HSBC for £1 in last-minute rescue deal

One tech founder ‘cried with relief ’ over bank rescue deal

- Jonathan Prynn and Simon Hunt

THE UK arm of the stricken Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was sold for £1 to HSBC today in a last-minute rescue deal that narrowly averted a major disaster in London’s key tech sector.

The sale was announced at 7am following a frantic weekend of high stakes talks involving Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey to head off Britain’s most serious banking crisis since the financial crash in 2008.

It came after tech leaders warned the Chancellor of chaos in one of Britain’s fastest growing industries with mass insolvencies and thousands of job losses if SVB was allowed to go under. Up to four out of 10 UK tech firms have accounts with SVB and only £85,000 worth of deposits would have been covered by a Government-backed guarantee scheme.

They faced being unable to access their funds today and having to tell staff that they could not pay their wages this week.

But in a joint statement from the Treasury and the Bank of England they were reassured that “customers of SVB UK will be able to access their deposits and banking services as normal from today”.