HSBC to buy the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank

Bringing a big relief to UK tech firms, HSBC has swooped to buy the UK arm of collapsed US Silicon Valley Bank. Customers and businesses who had been unable to withdraw their money will now be able to access it as normal. The government and the Bank of England led the talks and worked through to scramble together the deal, which involves no taxpayer money.

Speaking to the media, HSBC boss Noel Quinn said the deal had been "too good an opportunity to miss" and had ensured "a crisis in one institution did not become a systemic crisis".

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank - which specialised in lending to technology companies has sent shockwaves across the tech industry over the possible impact it could have on businesses, with some firms saying they could go bust if deposits were not secured.

The Bank of England said no other UK banks had been "materially affected" by SVB's collapse and said the banking system remained "safe, sound, and well capitalised".

Although the UK arm of SVB was small with just over 3,000 business customers, its collapse would have presented a risk for the sector, which the government views as pivotal to the UK's future economic success.

According to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, some of the firms only had bank accounts with SVB UK. “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,” he said.