HSBC UK chief executive Ian Stuart was jubilant when he announced the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK in June 2023. The collapsed technology bank’s clients would in future be able to get all their financing from HSBC “from seed funding all the way through to IPO”, he declared.

Er… not any more. Those clients will now have to go elsewhere for their IPOs after HSBC announced it is to quit advising on M&A and equity capital markets transactions in the UK, continental Europe and the Americas.