The failure of Silicon Valley Bank has left many Chinese funds and tech start-ups in the lurch, as the collapsed institution served as a key funding bridge for groups operating between China and the US. SVB’s abrupt takeover by US regulators on Friday has also cast doubt over the fate of its joint venture in
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Saudi Aramco reported record profits of $161bn in 2022 and increased its payout to shareholders as the largely state-owned oil company cashed in on a tumultuous year in energy markets. The Saudi Arabian producer on Sunday said it sold more oil than in 2021, improved refining margins and benefited from strong crude prices, which helped
The UK chancellor is preparing a dramatic intervention to provide a cash lifeline to scores of tech businesses next week as he seeks to contain the damage caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Jeremy Hunt said there was “a serious risk” to tech and life sciences companies that used SVB’s UK bank, many
Xi Jinping has kept the country’s central bank governor Yi Gang in his post and retained his finance and commerce ministers, as the Chinese president defied expectations of a large-scale overhaul of his cabinet at this year’s annual parliamentary meeting. The reappointments, which analysts said would reassure markets nervous about plans by Beijing to reform
US customers of Silicon Valley Bank which are not covered by a government-backed insurance scheme have been rushing to sell their deposits to pay salaries and other operating expenses after the lender was shuttered by regulators. SVB will reopen on Monday for insured depositors under the newly formed Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara,
In early March, 40 chief financial officers from various technology groups gathered in the Utah ski resort of Deer Valley for an annual “snow summit” hosted by Silicon Valley Bank, a crucial financial institution for start-ups. Barely a week later, on Thursday morning, several of the finance chiefs were exchanging frantic messages about whether they
The world’s largest seller of electric and hybrid cars has ruled out building its first European car factory in the UK because of Brexit. China’s BYD has set out ambitious plans to dominate the region’s electric vehicle market this decade, aiming to account for one in 10 battery cars sold by 2030, and wanting to
China has named a general who is under US sanctions as its new defence minister, creating an additional hurdle for military dialogue as the two countries fret that geopolitical tensions could boil over into conflict. Li Shangfu, an aerospace engineer with little previous international exposure, was confirmed as the top military official on Sunday. His
Rishi Sunak has tried to distance the government from the row consuming the BBC over its suspension of football presenter Gary Lineker for what it said was a breach of its political impartiality policy. The prime minister called on the broadcaster to resolve the row quickly, intensifying pressure on Tim Davie, its director-general, who apologised
More than 200 UK-based tech company executives have urged Downing Street to intervene after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which they warned poses an “existential threat to the UK tech sector”. The Bank of England moved to put the UK arm of SVB into insolvency late on Friday following the shutdown earlier in the
The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the sell-off in US banks that followed have highlighted the lasting dangers of a strategy many lenders used to boost profits when interest rates were low. Over the past three years, banks became accustomed to investing customer deposits in fixed-income securities when they could not profitably lend them
The BBC is embroiled in a mounting crisis over its decision to force Gary Lineker to “step back” from hosting its highest-profile sports programme after accusing him of breaching its political impartiality policy. Lineker’s suspension from Premier League highlights show Match of the Day has triggered a walkout by other BBC staff and contributors, plunging
Circle, the operator of one of the world’s largest stablecoins, has said $3.3bn of its reserves are trapped in Silicon Valley Bank, triggering a fall in the value of its token as the crypto market reels from the failure of two US banks this week. The announcement from Circle overnight on Friday prompted the company’s
The flood of cash into the tech start-up scene in recent years has led to persistent warnings of disaster. Most often, these have turned on the kind of meltdown that hit Silicon Valley at the turn of the century, when a stampede to make money on the early internet led to massive over-investment. It’s safe
An influential group of City of London chief executives has called on Jeremy Hunt to enact reforms aimed at releasing more investor capital to support UK companies and boost the economy. In a letter seen by the Financial Times, the UK Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT) told the chancellor there was a “substantial opportunity to
Silicon Valley Bank is bust. With $212bn in assets and a market capitalisation of $16bn as recently as Wednesday, it is by far the biggest bank failure since the global financial crisis. SVB is worlds away from Silvergate, the tiny crypto-bank that announced plans to wind down this week. Silvergate had just $11bn in assets
The Bank of England has moved to put the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank into resolution after it applied for £1.8bn of liquidity as its parent company was collapsing on Friday. The BoE said in a late-night statement that it plans to use its bank insolvency procedure which allows depositors to be paid up
A top Federal Reserve official has said he is “open to any outcome” regarding the central bank’s conundrum over whether to revert to half-point interest rate rises in the face of unexpectedly strong economic data. Speaking with the Financial Times on Friday, Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin, who has previously been an advocate of quarter-point
Silicon Valley Bank’s failure on Friday was an extreme consequence of broad trends squeezing profits and clouding the outlook for the banking sector. SVB had grown to about $209bn in assets with a client base concentrated among tech and healthcare start-ups. This business proved particularly vulnerable to the impact of rapidly rising interest rates. When
Silicon Valley start-ups are scrambling to pay staff and identify sources of back-up funding after regulators stepped in and shut down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday morning, stranding deposits that serve as the lifeblood of many early-stage technology companies. The bank was the 16th largest in the US and a central part of the Silicon
Two and a bit months in, how is 2023 shaping up in financial markets? Bank of America sums it up well with a (sadly anonymised) quote from an investor: “Like watching a mad donkey thrashing around in a field bouncing off all the fences.” If anything, this may be a little harsh on mad donkeys,