HSBC bags £135m from former Silicon Valley Bank as job cuts push up restructuring bill
The rescued UK wing of Silicon Valley Bank has paid another bumper dividend to HSBC as it racked up costs amid a sweeping restructure.
HSBC Innovation Banking – the branding bestowed on the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVBUK) – was taken over by Europe’s largest lender in March 2023 as ministers, regulators and banking executives scrambled to save the failed firm.
The tech-focused lender, which targets fast-growth companies in a bid to help them scale globally, recorded a 28 per cent uptick in pre-tax profit to £283m in its latest financial year for 2025.
It sent its parent – HSBC UK Bank – a cash packet of £135m for the period. This was down from the £333m it paid last year.
The bank pocketed £51m in net fee income, up from £45.4m the year prior. This cash stream comes from its charge to clients for day-to-day things like foreign exchange transactions, setting up credit facilities and credit card usage.
The firm flagged a £12m cost hit that it said arose from efforts to “enhance organisational simplicity and agility” in the second half of the year.
An average of 749 employees were at the business throughout 2025, but by the end of the year, it counted 655 active workers.
HSBC locked in California lawsuit over Silicon Valley Bank
Across its c-suite there was also a shake-up with Simon Bumfrey serving as interim chief for the first half of the year before Emily Turner took the helm. The firm’s finance boss Tom Wolfenden also abruptly resigned on January 1 2026, the day after company secretary James Watts exited.
HSBC is continuing to fight off a $1bn legal threat from the firm that took over the core Silicon Valley Bank operations in the US, which it warns could have a “significant” impact.
First Citizens Bank is seeking as much as $1bn in damages, alleging a conspiracy to poach Silicon Valley Bank employees and steal confidential data.
California judges handed HSBC a major win after dismissing the majority of First Citizens’ claims. But the firm has since ramped up the pressure, after being permitted to use legal ammunition from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which claims the US government was also stung by the alleged poaching.
The case is currently making its way through the discovery process, during which First Citizens is seeking to unearth evidence.