What You Need to Know

• Silicon Valley Bank’s 48-hour collapse sent several Big Law firms into action late last week.

• Morgan Lewis, Wilmer, Wilson Sonsini and Ballard Spahr are among the laws firms that launched task forces and webinars over the weekend.

• Despite some reassurance from the FDIC on Sunday, there are lingering issues that are expected to continue to prevent firms’ clients from conducting business in the normal course.

After a turbulent weekend, the news on Monday morning that HSBC had acquired Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) caused the UK tech community to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

It was also a very different outcome to the one that seemed destined on Friday when the Bank of England announced it intended to put SVB UK into a bank insolvency procedure.

The FDIC receiverships of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have caused certain early-stage companies to face potentially crippling near-term liquidity issues. These liquidity issues may result in a company becoming insolvent. Therefore, boards of directors of such companies need to consider their fiduciary duties as well as steps that can be taken to mitigate risks.

Fiduciary duties are typically owed to the company for the benefit of its owners.

This FAQ has been updated to take account of developments through March 15, 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was closed by its California state regulators on Friday, March 10, 2023, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was appointed as receiver. As the market absorbed these developments, customers of SVB and other regional banks rushed to protect their deposits over the weekend, resulting in the closure of Signature Bank in New York, and the announcement on Sunday that all deposits at SVB and SB were moved to newly formed bridge banks.

What you need to know:

News of HSBC's acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) has brought huge relief to the UK tech community and wider economy – quite possibly the optimal result in the circumstances following the Bank of England's announcement of a likely insolvency procedure on Friday 10 March.

Summary

This article provides information regarding what will now happen to the operations and business of the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB UK) after the sale (the Sale) of SVB UK to HSBC’s ring-fenced UK subsidiary, HSBC UK Bank plc (HSBC).

The recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and Signature Bank have dominated news headlines for the last several days. The seemingly abrupt failure of two large financial institutions and the subsequent revelations that some businesses could lose a substantial amount of deposits have a lot of business owners concerned about the security of their funds. However, recent actions by the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) and United States Treasury Department have substantially reduced the risk that depositors will lose deposits.

The High Court of Australia has recently upheld a decision of the Full Federal Court in Metal Manufacturers Pty Limited and Gavin Morton as liquidator of MJ Woodman Electrical Contractors Pty Ltd (in liquidation) & Anor^[1], which confirmed that statutory set-off is not available to be offset against a liquidator’s claim for the recovery of an unfair preference.