Following its recent buyout by HSBC, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) UK is reportedly continuing to offer loans to the tech sector and allowing its customers to access pre-existing loans, according to messages from the SVB U.K. staff seen by Sifted.
While this news comes as a sigh of relief to SVB UK’s customers, it remains unclear whether HSBC will opt to maintain these services in the long term. As confirmed by one message, the bank permitted a client to access cash as part of a pre-existing loan yesterday, 13 March 2023.
Another message indicated that SVB UK will continue to operate as a standalone entity within HSBC, and that its operations will continue as usual for the time being. In fact, SVB UK approved a new credit line to a fintech client, and as a symbol of its strength, is pushing for a deal with them next week, according to Sifted’s source at the bank.
In the south of San Fransisco and world over, SVB UK provided credit to venture capitalists, and had become an iconic venture debt lender; the messiah for high growth startups with venture capitalist backing. Last year alone, the bank funded Paddle, a B2B software company, $200 million in a Series D round, among other large scale deals.
A former employee said that “business [is] as usual for now,” but HSBC still needs “to figure out exactly what it’s bought”.
Despite murky waters, SVB UK’s debt financing operations seem to by unaffected by the buyout. Although, it remains to be seen how HSBC will handle the bank’s operations in the long run, and the fate of its rampant love affair with the tech sector.
