The move comes after the US’ then-sixteenth-largest bank was shut down by California regulators on Friday 10 March after investors withdrew money en masse.

It was the largest bank failure since 2008 and the second-largest bank failure in US history, with the firm having $209bn in assets – and £151.6bn of this being uninsured.

The bank’s interest on this side of the pond amounts to circa £5.5bn of loans and £6.7bn of deposits spread across over 3,000 business customers.

The BBC reports that the prime minister, the chancellor, the Bank of England (BoE) governor, HSBC bosses and civil servants were involved in all-night talks to make the deal.

HSBC says it will updated shareholders as to the acquisition on 2 May within its first quarter results.

Group chief executive Noel Quinn comments: “This acquisition makes excellent strategic sense for our business in the UK. It strengthens our commercial banking franchise and enhances our ability to serve innovative and fast-growing firms, including in the technology and life-science sectors, in the UK and internationally.

“We welcome SVB UK’s customers to HSBC and look forward to helping them grow in the UK and around the world. SVB UK customers can continue to bank as usual, safe in the knowledge that their deposits are backed by the strength, safety and security of HSBC. We warmly welcome SVB UK colleagues to HSBC, we are excited to start working with them.”

And the BoE confirms that ‘all depositors’ money with SVBUK is safe and secure as a result of this transaction. SVBUK’s business will continue to be operated normally by SVBUK.

‘All services will continue to operate as normal and customers should not notice any changes.’

It adds that the UK banking system, ‘remains safe, sound, and well capitalised.’