Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.
The collapse of a US bank few Europeans had ever heard of has governments on alert for its impact on tech startups, life sciences and pension funds. California-based Silicon Valley Bank had branches in Denmark, Germany and Sweden, and its founders are warning the institution’s failure could wipe out startups around the world without government intervention. Polish mobile game developer Huuuge, for example, said about 10% of its liquid assets are at SVB, while Sweden’s largest pension fund was SVB’s fourth-biggest shareholder at the end of last year with holdings worth $605 million. As US authorities race to contain the fallout, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on his way to California to meet President Joe Biden, rushed to find a lifeline for the hundreds of startup companies dependent on the bank for funding. Read more about how the bank collapsed so quickly and what its failure means.
