Silicon Valley Bank: The Bank of London confirms bid for SVB UK

A consortium of leading private equity firms, led by The Bank of London has submitted formal proposals to the Treasury, Prudential Regulation Authority and the Board of Silicon Valley Bank UK.

The Bank of London, backed by a consortium of private equity investors, has submitted formal proposals to the Treasury, The Prudential Regulation Authority at The Bank of England and the Board of Silicon Valley Bank UK, Silicon Valley Bank’s UK subsidiary.

Gavin Hewitt, the former chief financial officer of Silicon Valley Bank UK, joined the Bank of London, at the end of 2022 as its new CFO. 

“Silicon Valley Bank cannot be allowed to fail given the vital community it serves. This is a unique opportunity to ensure the UK has a more diversified banking sector, whilst allowing continuity of service to SVB’s UK client base,” said Anthony Watson (pictured), Group Chief Executive and Founder of The Bank of London.

“It would be deeply disappointing for this moment to lead to further consolidation of power among big banks,” he added.

Launched in 2021, the Bank of London is the United Kingdom’s sixth principal clearing bank and only the second authorised in the last 250 years. 

Shortly after launching it closed a  $90m Series C funding round at a $1.1bn valuation, despite not yet having any revenues in December 2021.  It extended this round in February 2023 by $40m.