Another week, another last-minute bank rescue deal hashed out over a weekend. In the past two weeks we have seen the resolution frameworks countries put in place following the 2008 financial crisis set in motion – some for the very first time – to try and stop the contagion from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in the US spreading to the other side of the pond.
In the early hours of Monday, March 13, HSBC snapped up the UK operations of SVB for £1. To sweeten the deal, the UK government also made concessions, relaxing the ring-fencing rules to allow HSBC’s ring-fenced bank, which cost somewhere in the region of £1.5bn to set up, to take on the corporate deposits and high-quality loan book of SVB UK.
