U.S. regulator seizes First Republic Bank, to sell assets to JP Morgan

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) said on Monday it had closed First Republic Bank and agreed a deal to sell its assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co and National Association, in what is the third major US bank to fail in two months.

JPMorgan bank was one of several interested buyers including PNC Financial Services Group, and Citizens Financial Group Inc, which submitted final bids on Sunday in an auction being run by US regulators, sources familiar with the matter said over the weekend.

A deal for First Republic, which had total assets of $229.1 billion as of April 13, comes less than two months after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed amid a deposit flight from US lenders, forcing the Federal Reserve to step in with emergency measures to stabilize markets.

Those failures came after crypto-focused Silvergate voluntarily liquidated.