First Republic Becomes Second-Largest Ever US Bank Failure

For just over one month, Silicon Valley Bank was the second-largest bank failure in US history. That was until First Republic Bank, a California lender that catered to wealthy clients, knocked it off that spot.

(Bloomberg) — For just over one month, Silicon Valley Bank was the second-largest bank failure in US history. That was until First Republic Bank, a California lender that catered to wealthy clients, knocked it off that spot.

First Republic was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. early on Monday after failing to undo the damage from a flood of customer withdrawals and declining asset prices. The US regulator struck an agreement for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to take over the bank’s assets including $173 billion of loans and $30 billion of securities, as well as $92 billion in deposits, after talks to rescue the lender dragged on for weeks.

First Republic’s $229 billion of assets as of April 13 slots it just behind Washington Mutual Inc., which imploded in 2008 with $307 billion in such holdings and total deposits of $188 billion. At that time, the FDIC seized the Seattle-based firm’s banking operations and sold them to JPMorgan for $1.9 billion.

Among the biggest FDIC failures this century, three have occurred in the past several weeks with the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in early March. Silicon Valley Bank had $167 billion of assets around the time of its failure.

–With assistance from Katanga Johnson.

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