The British government and Bank of England have held talks to find a solution that would avert Silicon Valley Bank’s subsidiary in the UK from failing.
This comes just as another British Bank, HSBC (HSBA.L) announced it was buying Silicon Valley Bank UK for 1 pound ($1.21).
It said the subsidiary had loans of around 5.5 billion pounds and deposits of around 6.7 billion pounds as of March 10.
While SVB UK is small – HSBC’s balance sheet exceeds $2.9 trillion .
There are concerns that SVB’s failure would cause Britain’s start-up industry to seize up.
This had prompted calls from the sector for government to intervene.
British start-ups backed by venture capital have around 2.5 billion pounds, largely in deposits in SVB UK, according to a weekend survey by an industry body.
Reuters/Hauwa Abu
