LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday he was working with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey to “avoid or minimize damage” to Britain. Kingdom linked to the fall of the American bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
“We worked at a brisk pace throughout the weekend and into the night,” Jeremy Hunt told Sky News. “We will be presenting plans very soon to ensure that companies are able to meet their cash flow needs and pay their staff.”
The minister added that the priority was to find a “long-term solution which minimizes, if not completely avoids, the losses suffered by some of the most promising (UK) companies”.
The brutal bankruptcy of SVB Financial Group, a major player in the financing of American start-ups and technology companies, was the largest in the banking sector in the United States since the financial crisis of 2008.
Consulting firm Rothschild & Co is exploring options for the UK arm, Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited, sources told Reuters on Saturday. In a press release, the BoE announced its intention to ask the courts to subject the British establishment to insolvency proceedings.
Echoing the statements of the central bank, Jeremy Hunt, however, pointed out that, overall, Silicon Valley Bank had a limited presence in the United Kingdom and did not provide any essential function to the financial system.
(Andrew MacAskill and William Schomberg, Laetitia Volga)
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