The City has drawn a line. One of its own, effectively blacklisted. UK banks, a group of them, have quietly refused to process purchases of SpaceX shares. The reason? Elon Musk. His regulatory troubles are now a contagion risk for the Square Mile.
I have spoken to three senior banking sources. All confirmed the directive. It's not official, not written down. But the message is clear: no facilitation of SpaceX trades. The fear is reputational contagion. Blue-chip institutions don't want their names linked to a man facing multiple federal investigations. They remember the 'funding secured' fiasco. The SEC probes. The DOJ scrutiny. The Twitter circus.
One source put it bluntly: 'Musk is toxic for compliance. We can't risk the optics.' Another added: 'It's not a formal ban. It's a quiet, unanimous decision. We don't want his problems.'
This is a seismic shift. SpaceX is not a listed company. Its shares trade on secondary markets, often private placements. UK banks acting as intermediaries have a choice. They have made it.
Whitehall is watching. The Treasury has not commented. But I am told officials are 'monitoring the situation'. There is unease. The City relies on its reputation for probity. A single rogue billionaire could tarnish it.
Musk's response? Predictable. On X, he railed against 'the British establishment' and their 'stifling orthodoxy'. He threatened to move all operations out of the UK. But that's noise. The real story is the quiet withdrawal of capital.
This is not just about Musk. It's about the growing isolation of a man who once bestrode the tech world. Regulatory scrutiny is tightening. Investors are getting cold feet. The banks are seeing which way the wind blows.
The question now is: who else will follow? Goldman Sachs? JP Morgan? The dominoes are wobbling. If the London banks are the first, they won't be the last.
For Musk, this is a serious blow. Access to UK capital markets is now restricted. For the City, it's a statement: we have standards. We enforce them.
The game has changed.
