Monday, May 1, 2023

First Republic fails, and is snapped up by JPMorgan Chase

 Yet another bank has bit the dust as First Republic has recently been acquired by investment banking powerhouse JP Morgan Chase. Starting May 1st, all First Republic branches will operate as JP Morgan Chase branches. JP Morgan acquired First Republic with the assistance of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC is also assisting with the acquisition by partially paying for losses on the bank's residential and commercial loans.

Most believed that it would be a matter of time before the small California-based lender collapsed, especially following the recent increases to interest rates and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Both banks faced issues associated with the lack of depositors not covered by federal deposit insurance. As a result, we saw significant decline in deposit base in the first quarter of 2023 by $72 billion.

Investors had low expectations for First Republic in 2023 especially after the collapse of SVB. In the March, First Republics stock price decline 89 percent. There is some hope for the rest of the banking industry as it appears that no other banks are being significantly impacted by the recent news. It is also beneficial for the industry to see a large bank like JP Morgan step in during time of need. It is still a very concerning time in the market as American regional-bank shares have declined nearly 30 percent. It will be interesting to see future conditions and how the government and large banks will respond. 


Source: First Republic Fails

1 comment:

Kory Kaiser said...

I had written about First Republic Bank over the weekend and the article I had read from the New York Times, they had mentioned that JP Morgan Chase was one of the 3 banks looking at buying First Republic. It's interesting that JPMorgan Chase is buying out these banks once again. They were one of the banks that had been bailing out banks during the banking crisis back in 2008. It's funny seeing how much history seems to repeat itself.