The UK government said customer deposits would be protected “without taxpayer support.”
“Customers of SVB UK will be able to access their deposits and banking services as normal from today,” it said in a statement.
Under the agreement, HSBC’s UK subsidiary will finance the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited, which is expected to be completed immediately. The transaction excludes all assets and liabilities of the parent company, SVB.
The UK deal comes after the Biden administration moved to protect SVB customers from losses, announcing on Sunday night that depositors would have access to all their money on Monday morning and authorizing an extraordinary intervention aimed at averting a crisis in the financial system.
Authorities said they also extended protections to depositors at Signature Bank in New York, which state regulators closed on Sunday as turmoil in the financial sector spread.
The British government, the Bank of England and British financial regulators had been looking for days for a buyer for SVB’s British subsidiary to protect the country’s technology sector. British start-ups are particularly dependent on the bank’s funding, but found themselves in uncertain waters after US regulators closed SVB on Friday in what amounted to the second-biggest bank collapse in US history.
Jeremy Hunt, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the government “worked urgently to fulfill” a promise to “look after” the sector and the bank’s customers.
The Bank of England said it approved the sale “to stabilize SVBUK”, ensure “the continuity of banking services”, minimize “disruption to the UK technology sector” and strengthen “confidence in the financial system.”
Jeff Stein, David J. Lynch, Tony Romm, Tyler Pager and Julian Mark contributed to this report.