The bank will target the technology, life sciene, private equity and VC sectors, with Chancellor George Osborne stating that the move proves "the UK is fast becoming the technology centre of Europe".

Phil Cox, SVB's head of UK, Israel and India, said the bank would be making loans of between £300,000 and £30m to established companies looking to expand.

"Building on our credentials of supporting technology firms in the US, we are excited to be able to help the UK's entrepreneurs meet and exceed their ambitious goals," he told the BBC.

Building on our credentials of supporting technology firms in the US, we are excited to be able to help the UK's entrepreneurs meet and exceed their ambitious goals”

Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, can already count Cisco Systems, Mozilla and Pinterest, as its US clients. It claims that more than half of all venture capital-backed technology and life science companies bank with the group. In the US it has made $7bn in loans and holds over $17bn of client funds.

Julie Meyer, managing partner of the ACE Fund, an early-stage digital seed fund, told the BBC: "What an endorsement of the UK tech scene this is - that an important institution such as Silicon Valley Bank - the beating heart of the Valley - has come to the UK to bank its entrepreneurs.

"This should cause the other UK retail banks to work a little harder or think more constructively about how to bank the UK's best high-growth tech firms."