The collapse of US Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) poses a serious risk to the UK tech sector, Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.
Many biotech companies also did business with the bank or its British subsidiary, Hunt said during an interview on the TV channel Sky News. “Most people won’t have heard of Silicon Valley Bank, but that bank manages the money of some of our most promising and exciting companies.”
The British government will soon introduce measures to ensure that customers of SVB and its British subsidiary have sufficient money. Otherwise, several companies might be unable to pay their salaries on time.
The government does not bail out the British branch of SVB, Hunt indicated. Instead, that branch would try to sell itself to a British bank, according to Sky News. According to the business newspaper The Financial Times, the British government would like a buyer from the Middle East to take over the branch.
