The Silicon Valley Bank branch in London has reinforced its commitment to providing a high-quality service to startups and announced it would continue to offer its services like earlier. The HSBC UK Bank is now the new SVB UK branch owner.
Business owners planning to set up new businesses or startups will get the facility of seed funding like before, and the Bank will continue to offer IPO services to startups.
Startups who want to fund their business considered the Silicon Valley Bank the best Bank before its collapse. Ian Stuart, the Chief executive officer of HSBC UK, is now the new CEO of SVB UK. He said that the Bank would continue to offer its banking and funding facilities to startups as earlier, and he announced his decision in Amsterdam, where he was attending a Fintech meeting and conference.
Ian Stuart said that Silicon Valley Bank UK would protect startup schemes. The HSBC bank will offer the same services to startups as the original Silicon Valley Bank. The Bank’s services and funding will be available to businesses with no significant change in the startup funding policies.
The CEO said this to CNBC at a Money 20/20 meeting. He declared that the Bank would ringfence the Silicon Valley Bank UK funds. It shows the Bank’s intention of not using the funds allotted to startups for other purposes.
Ian said that the Bank would have its own board and risk policies. The HSBC Bank UK will follow a policy to protect its assets and will continue to offer the startup funding schemes as the Bank followed before the acquisition from Silicon Valley Bank.
The Silicon Valley Bank was originally a commercial bank based in California. HSBC Bank UK bought a subsidiary of a branch of the original Silicon Valley Bank. The branch is located in London in the UK. The acquisition took place in March 2023.
HSBC has rebranded the Silicon Valley Bank UK, but it intends to expand its services among the global audience with a special focus on startups like its parent company or Bank.
Silicon Valley Bank underwent a downfall and collapsed this year in March, after which HSBC acquired it. The HSBC Bank is a well-known traditional bank and financial services organization.
The Silicon Valley Bank had few customers in the UK. The current CEO, Ian Stuart said he would plan to grow the banking services. The new and rebranded Bank would offer its services in the UK and the US, other regions like Asia, and the banking area of the Middle East.
Stuart brushed aside some people’s belief that HSBC did not possess the capacity to provide funding services to tech-based startups. There was a fear that the new Bank would not function like its parent bank, the Silicon Valley Bank.
Ian reassured the stakeholders and said the Bank would fulfill the funding needs of business owners and customers. He says the fear that the Bank would fail the expectations of tech startups was false and without a base.
The Bank had plans to offer seed funding and IPO services like the original Bank. Ian said the Bank would work so efficiently that startups didn’t have to choose any other banking platform for funding.
HSBC Bank UK will combine the products of SVB UK with its services and offer them to customers.
Ian Stuart said,
“We want to be global very, very quickly, setting up infrastructure in the US, UK, Israel, Middle East, and Asia. So it’s a really comprehensive plan.”
The HSBC bank in the UK had shifted the required back-end systems to their country. They migrated them from their original location, the US. The Bank will rename these systems and processes. A few trusted sources of Sky News have revealed this. The Bank is still deciding what will be the new name. Most probably, they will offer it under the name HSBC Innovation Banking.
The new Bank HSBC UK wants to establish its banking services worldwide to increase its reach among customers and businesses in areas other than their nation.
