MSN
Regulators seized First Republic Bank and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase & Co., heading off a chaotic collapse that threatened to reignite the recent banking crisis.
JPMorgan said it will assume all of First Republic’s $92 billion in deposits—insured and uninsured. It is also buying most of the bank’s assets, including about $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities.
As part of the agreement, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will share losses with JPMorgan on First Republic’s loans. The agency estimated that its insurance fund would take a hit of $13 billion in the deal. JPMorgan also said it would receive $50 billion in financing from the FDIC.
San Francisco-based First Republic, the second-largest bank to fail in U.S. history, lost $100 billion in deposits in a March run following the collapse of fellow Bay Area lender Silicon Valley Bank. It limped along for weeks after a group of America’s biggest banks came to its rescue with a $30 billion deposit. Those deposits will be repaid after the deal closes, JPMorgan said.
Three of the four largest-ever U.S. bank failures have occurred in the past two months. First Republic, with some $233 billion in assets at the end of the first quarter, ranks just behind the 2008 collapse of Washington Mutual Inc. Rounding out the top four are Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, a New York-based lender that also failed in March.
The deal means JPMorgan, the largest bank in the U.S., is poised to emerge from the current crisis even bigger. The lender has said it got about $50 billion in new deposits from panicky customers looking to move their money to a too-big-to-fail bank following March’s failures. JPMorgan had $2.4 trillion in deposits at the end of the first quarter.
The megabank said it bid to help stabilize the financial system. “This part of the crisis is over,” JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said Monday. “Everyone should just take a deep breath.”
Both First Republic and Washington Mutual are now substantially owned by JPMorgan. While the 2008 deal helped the bank expand in California and Florida, it also brought years of regulatory and legal headaches tied to issues with the failed bank’s mortgages.
Mr. Dimon played a key role in earlier efforts to rescue First Republic. His bank was one of the largest contributors to the $30 billion deposit, and he tried to rally the other banks to take additional steps to help. His bankers were also hired to advise First Republic on its various options…
