London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

HSBC buys Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1 in deal which 'protects customers and taxpayers'

HSBC buys Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1 in deal which 'protects customers and taxpayers'

The bank used by tech companies and start-ups has a balance sheet worth £8.8bn yet was bought by Europe's largest bank for £1.

HSBC has bought the embattled UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB UK), securing the deposits of more than 3,000 customers worth £6.7bn.

Confirming a story broken on Monday by Sky's City editor Mark Kleinman, the Bank of England, which had been preparing to bring the bank into an insolvency process, said all depositors' money with SVB UK was safe and secure as a result of the purchase.

All SVB UK services will continue to operate as normal and customers should not notice any changes, a statement said.

There were fears that tech companies and start-ups banking with SVB UK would be unable to meet costs, including payroll, as they could not access their money.

"A number of our most promising and important technology and life science companies had their money with Silicon Valley Bank in the UK branch," Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said.

"When you have very young companies, very promising companies, they're also fragile. They need to pay their staff. And they were worried that as of 8:00 this morning, they might literally not be able to access their bank accounts," he said.

"Some of them only had bank accounts with Silicon Valley Bank UK. And so for that reason, we were faced with a situation where we could have seen some of our most important companies, our most strategic companies wiped out, and that would have been extremely dangerous."


HSBC said it bought SVB UK - which has a balance sheet of £8.8bn - for £1.

"This acquisition makes excellent strategic sense for our business in the UK," HSBC said.

"It strengthens our commercial banking franchise and enhances our ability to serve innovative and fast-growing firms, including in the technology and life-science sectors, in the UK and internationally," Noel Quinn, HSBC group chief executive said.

A statement from the Treasury highlighted that no taxpayer money is involved in the sale.

Mr Hunt said: "Making use of post-crisis banking reforms, which introduced powers to safely manage the failure of banks, this sale has protected both the customers of SVB UK and taxpayers."

"The UK's tech sector is genuinely world-leading and of huge importance to the British economy, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. I said yesterday that we would look after our tech sector, and we have worked urgently to deliver on that promise and find a solution that will provide SVB UK's customers with confidence," Mr Hunt added.

"HSBC is Europe's largest bank, and SVB UK customers should feel reassured by the strength, safety and security that brings them."

The Bank of London, which had been leading a consortium bid for SVB UK, welcomed the fact a buyer had been found but had some criticism of the successful purchaser.

"For many, this will be seen as a missed opportunity to support competition and innovation," chief executive Anthony Watson said.

"It cannot be right that once again the heritage banks that have provided a poor service to UK entrepreneurs over many years benefit from their already dominant, privileged position. Britain needs better."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
×