“There is a serious risk to our technology and science sectors, many of which do business with this bank,” UK Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said in an interview with UK TV on Sunday (March 12). SkyNews. The bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank, officially recorded by the American authorities, who took control of it on Friday evening, indeed raises concerns in the tech sector, where it had many customers.
Jeremy Hunt said he had spoken over the weekend with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, and that “we are working at full speed to find a solution” . He added that the plan would help meet the cash needs of businesses affected by the implosion of the bank, lender to “some of our most promising and exciting businesses.”
Little known to the general public, SVB had specialized in the financing of start-ups and had become the 16th American bank by the size of assets. His disappearance is not only the largest bank failure since that of Washington Mutual in 2008 but also the second largest failure of a retail bank in the United States.
The bank was no longer able to cope with the massive withdrawals of its customers, mainly tech players, and its last attempts to raise fresh money were unsuccessful. On Saturday, the UK Treasury assured that SVB’s problems were “specific” and had “no implications for other banks operating in the UK”.
Regarding the UK branch of SVB, the Bank of England explained in a statement on Saturday morning that “in the absence of significant additional information”, it “intends to seek a court order to place Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited in bank insolvency proceedings”.
The British television channel Sky News reports for its part, without giving more details, that the young Bank of London, opened two years ago, is studying the possibilities of rescuing the British subsidiary of the SVB.
