HSBC bought the UK arm of stricken Silicon Valley Bank for a symbolic one pound today, rescuing a key lender for technology start-ups in Britain and helping curb the fallout from the biggest bank collapse since the financial crash.
The move comes after US authorities moved to shore up deposits and stem any wider contagion from the sudden collapse of its parent Silicon Valley Bank.
The deal, which sees one of the world's biggest banks with $2.9 trillion of assets, take the doomed British arm of the tech lender under its wing, brings to an end frantic weekend talks between the government, regulators, and prospective buyers.
"HSBC is Europe's largest bank, and SVB UK customers should feel reassured by the strength, safety and security that brings them," Britain's finance minister Jeremy Hunt said.
"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," Hunt told reporters.
Asked about HSBC's white-knight role, Hunt said the finance ministry's priority had been to avoid using British taxpayers' money.
The Bank of England said it had organised the sale to underpin confidence in the financial system and minimise any fallout for British technology firms.
It said deposits at the bank were safe as a result of the sale, and that the wider banking system was safe.
"On the face of it appears a good deal," Richard Marwood, senior fund manager and HSBC investor at Royal London Asset Management, said. "SVB lacked liquidity and depositor confidence - HSBC has both of those in spades."
SVB UK is ringfenced from the US group, and HSBC said the assets and liabilities of the parent company were excluded from the transaction.
"This acquisition makes excellent strategic sense for our business in the UK," HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said in a statement.
SVB UK has loans of around £5.5 billion And deposits of around £6.7 billion, HSBC said, adding the takeover completes immediately.
The Bank of England said SVB UK had a total balance sheet size of around £8.8 billion.
Unlike the US, Britain has not announced broader liquidity measures for the banking system.
Dozens of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange updated shareholders on their exposure to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and its UK branch.
More than 40 London-listed companies posted updates as markets opened on Monday, with Moonpig, THG, Future and Naked Wines among the most prominent.
Greetings card company Moonpig said it has "no material exposure to SVB UK".
It does not have an account with the bank and holds no cash there. It has the option to borrow around £250mn from 10 banks, of which SVB is one. It had a promise of £13m of loans from SVB it has not yet drawn.
Naked Wines said there is "no loss expected" from the failure. It has £14m in a "cash sweep account" where SVB was the custodian.
This money should be recoverable through the process set up by US authorities.
Before the US Treasury said it would protect depositors, Naked Wines thought there was about £600,000 that may be at risk and was uninsured.
Formerly called The Hut Group, online retailer THG it "does not have any exposure to SVB", with no cash in one of its accounts or loans from the bank.
Future - the publisher behind PC Gamer, Marie Claire and The Week among others - said it had £1m in the bank, less than 3% of its total cash on hand.
SVB also provided £50m of the company's £900m loan facilities, with around half already drawn.
Others had also examined buying the bank. Bank of London said on Sunday it had submitted a formal proposal.
SoftBank-owned lender OakNorth Bank also weighed a bid, a person with knowledge of the talks told Reuters.
Abu Dhabi state-backed investment vehicle ADQ was also looking, according to media reports.
