HSBC Innovation Banking needs to reaffirm its roots

At 7am a year ago today, HSBC swooped in and rescued Silicon Valley Bank UK following the dramatic collapse of its US parent, buying it for £1.

It was the culmination of days of horror for Britain’s tech sector. Scores of startups and scaleups suddenly faced losing their bank accounts – their only bank accounts, for many. One founder told me his family were in tears as he geared up to shut the business he spent years building – he didn’t have the funds to pay his own staff, let alone suppliers and contractors.

And so it was a huge sigh of relief when HSBC saved the day. And it reflected well on the government that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt worked through the weekend and into the wee small hours of Monday morning to get a deal over the line. The tech community felt valued.

But SVB UK still had questions to answer. Why were there hours of radio silence from London when things were falling apart in San Francisco? By the time CEO Erin Platts offered her reassurances that the UK unit was stable, it was too late and customers had already rushed to pull funds.

The past year has been an opportunity for Platts to embark on a charm offensive and reset relations – to show that SVB, or HSBC Innovation Banking as it is now known, was back and better than ever.

But so far she has opted for more radio silence, turning down every interview request made by the Standard over the past year. I am told she is busy jetting off to various corners of the world, establishing a global presence for the bank under the ambitious new remit set by HSBC.

If that pays off, it will be great news for the bank and for the UK. But tech founders may worry if it departs from its roots. Some told me the reason they banked with SVB, after all, was that HSBC turned them down. SVB UK had an intimate knowledge of the British startup scene, so it was better-placed to do business with small firms and nurture them. Let’s hope it doesn’t lose sight of that.