HSBC to expand Silicon Valley Bank globally

Three months on from HSBC’srescue mission to scoop up Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the banking giant now plans to take things global with its new acquisition.

HSBC’s UK CEO Ian Stuart took to the stage on the first day of Money 20/20 to discuss how things have been since the bank took on SVB — not without its glitches — and more importantly what its plans are for its future.

Stuart explained that over the course of the now infamous weekend where it acquired SVB, between Saturday and Monday morning they became convinced that the deal would be good for all parties involved.

The challenge now? To prove that to everyone else.

“We have very talented people, good processes and what we’re going to do now is keep it standalone. We’re going to keep the magic that’s there and what we want to do from there is add on our product suite and our expertise onto that,” Stuart said.

“The plan is once we’ve got all that integrated we can start to build that out and very quickly and take it global.”

Addressing the concerns surrounding a traditional bank like HSBC — and perhaps one labelled as ‘risk averse’ — being the one to take on the startup-focused SVB and whether the market should be concerned, Stuart was firm in putting them to bed.

“I don’t think the market should be concerned about that but we’ve got to prove that. We’ve been going for 158 years, taking risks all over the world,” he said.

“We are going to take this global. We’ve got really good plans in place already,” Stuart continued.

“First of all, people say we’re in this market and it’s an entry point, but it’s not an entry point, it has accelerated plans.”

According to Stuart, taking on SVB has sped up HSBC’s acceleration plans by as much as three to five years.

With the commercial bank in the US, it plans to like the US into the UK, then look towards the Middle East and Asia, where HSBC itself is well established.