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HSBC has swooped into buy the UK arm of collapsed US Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), bringing relief to UK tech firms who warned they could go bust without help.
Customers and businesses who had been unable to withdraw their money will now be able to access it as normal.
The Treasury said the deal, which was thrashed out with HSBC through the night to be done before trading resumed on Monday, involved no taxpayer money
HSBC said it paid just £1 for the SVB's UK arm after it failed on Friday.
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.
Its collapse sent shockwaves across the tech industry over the possible impact it could have on businesses, with some firms telling the BBC they could go bust if deposits were not secured.
The deal came after all night talks involving chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the prime minister, the Bank of England governor, HSBC bosses and civil servants to try to find a solution before firms began trading again on Monday morning.
The Bank of England said no other UK banks had been "materially affected" by SVB's collapse and said the wider 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 a sector which the government views as pivotal to the UK's future economic success.
Mr Hunt said such firms were often "fragile".
"Some of them only had bank accounts with SVB UK and so for that reason we were faced with a situation where could have seen some of our most important companies, our most strategic companies, wiped out and that would have been extremely dangerous," he added.
But Mr Hunt insisted there was "never a systemic risk to our financial stability in the UK".
Sebastian Weidt, chief executive of Universal Quantum, a tech company which employs about 40 people and held all its funds with SVB, said the deal was a "huge relief".
He told the BBC the last 48 to 72 hours had been "unbelievably stressful" and said while his company had been trying to make plans to mitigate the potential impact, had a deal not been made it would have been "pretty detrimental to the whole sector".
Toby Mather, chief executive and co-founder of Lingumi, an education technology start-up said 85% of its cash was tied up with the bank and he'd had a very "anxious weekend".
"We had enough money in bank accounts outside the UK and enough revenue coming through each week from our customers that we could look our staff in the eyes at nine o'clock this morning and say we can make payroll in two weeks, but it would have been very uncertain from then", Mr Mather said.
What went wrong at Silicon Valley Bank?
The rescue deal for the UK arm comes after the US agreed a rescue deal for customers in the US bank too with all depositors fully protected.
SVB specialised in lending to start-up firms, and the company served nearly half of US venture-backed technology and healthcare companies that listed on stock markets last year.
The firm, which started as a California bank in 1983, was under pressure as higher interest rates made it harder for its customers to raise money through private fundraising or share sales. More clients were withdrawing deposits in a trend that snowballed last week.
The bank collapsed in the US on Friday after failing to raise enough money to plug losses from the sale of assets, mainly US government bonds, that were affected by higher rates.
Its problems sparked fears it could lead to the collapse of many smaller UK tech firms, with more than 200 bosses of UK tech companies signing a letter addressed to Mr Hunt calling for the government to step in.
One source in a tech firm previously told the BBC between 30% and 40% of UK start-ups employing up to 50,000 people could have been affected by the collapse.
But while the deal with HSBC has been widely welcomed, the Bank of London - a UK clearing bank - said it was a "missed opportunity".
The bank, which was among firms involved in early-stage talks and had put forward a rescue bid for SVB UK, 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 position."
The bosses of UK companies with money deposited in the UK based arm of Silicon Valley Bank can breathe easier this morning as their funds have been secured by HSBC's takeover.
The failure of its US parent company was a much more dangerous situation given its larger size and explains the different approach taken there where other US banks will help fund its rescue through banking deposit insurance schemes.
However, the episode does highlight the stresses that have emerged in the financial system as a result of the sharp rise in interest rates over the last year. Other stresses may emerge but this is not the harbinger of doom we saw when Lehman brothers collapsed shaking the entire financial system to its core.
The Treasury and the Bank of England will no doubt use this speedy response as an example of lessons learned during the financial crisis but the fact that a bank with concentrated importance in one sector ended up being sold for £1 will still beg questions of the regulatory regime.
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2023-03-13 08:32:15Z
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