Relief for UK tech firms over SVB rescue – but important lessons must be learnt

Jeremy Hunt can count the UK rescue as a win, but let’s hope there will be caution when it comes to City deregulation, writes James Moore

Silicon Valley Bank: The first big US banking failure since the financial crisis (Getty)

Let’s start off with the good thing that has emerged from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which handled roughly a quarter of the companies in the UK tech sector and had been threatening a meltdown.

The UK arm has been rescued via a deal put together over the weekend by the Bank of England, the government, and HSBC – the bank that is picking up the pieces after “a competitive process” and (so we are told) sparing the taxpayer a nasty wallop in the process.

There is something comfortingly old-school about the way this was brokered behind closed doors. The end result is that the business will be shifted to HSBC UK, meaning that depositors will be able to get their money and tech workers their wages.