LONDON (Reuters) – Investors bet more heavily on Monday on the possibility that the Bank of England will halt its run of interest rate increases at its March meeting next week after the failure of U.S. lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

Interest rate futures put the chance of no change in Bank Rate on March 23 at about 40%, up from 25% earlier on Monday and around 10% last week. Bets on a quarter-percentage point rate hike fell to about 60%.

The move followed a similar drop in expectations about a rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month after U.S. authorities announced plans to limit the fallout from the collapse of SVB.

(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce)