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A pedestrian walks by the First Republic Bank headquarters on March 13, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Hear what weakened First Republic Bank and triggered $30B bailout
02:26 - Source: CNN

What we covered here

  • First Republic Bank, facing a crisis of confidence from investors and customers, is set to receive a $30 billion lifeline from a group of 11 large banks. But its stock tumbled again Friday.
  • Shares in Credit Suisse also fell Friday, even after it agreed to a $53 billion loan from the Swiss central bank.
  • Troubles at Switzerland’s second-biggest lender and America’s regional banks have sparked fears that banking turmoil?is spreading around the world. The People’s Bank of China on Friday cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve for the first time this year in a surprise move aimed at boosting its sluggish economy and maintaining “reasonable and sufficient liquidity in the banking system.”
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First Republic is looking for extra cash and weighing sale option, New York Times reports

First Republic Bank’s financial woes appeared to be deepening despite an industry-led emergency cash infusion.

The beleaguered bank is trying to raise money through a private issue of new shares, according to the New York Times, which cited people familiar with the situation.

The news comes just 24 hours after First Republic secured a cash infusion of $30 billion from a consortium of banks.

A full sale of the bank remains on the table, according to one of the people who spoke to the Times.

First Republic declined to comment to CNN.

Stocks slide Friday as banking sector fears persist

Stocks fell Friday, ending the day lower as tumult in the banking sector continued to unnerve Wall Street.

The Dow ended the week down 1.2%. The S&P 500 ended the week up 1.4%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 4.4%.

Shares of First Republic continued their plunge and were down about 33%, even after a group of large banks intervened to offer the troubled bank $30 billion in deposits.

Credit Suisse stock slipped about 8% as Wall Street remained concerned about the bank’s ability to recover from this week’s turmoil.

Investors are hoping next week’s Federal Reserve meeting will shed more light on the trajectory of the economy following a troublesome week. Traders see a roughly 63% probability for a quarter-point hike, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

The Dow tumbled roughly 385 points, or 1.2%.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1%.

The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.7%.

Western Alliance bank says a 'significant' number of customers opened accounts this past week

Regional bank Western Alliance said business is pretty much back to normal after concerns about Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse sent shockwaves through the banking sector.

Western Alliance has $20 billion of cash on hand and the amount of withdrawals from accounts has plunged in recent days. The bank said it has a “significant” amount of money coming in from deposits, and a large number of new accounts were opened.

That’s a sharp contrast from Monday, when customers had been yanking deposits out of the bank in fear that Western Alliance may be the next bank to fail. Other regional banks, including First Republic and PacWest, have also struggled mightily to reassure customers and investors that they’re healthy.

Still, Western Alliance’s stock fell 15% Friday.

The bank said as of yesterday, 55% of its deposits were insured. That compares to just 7% at SVB, where many tech companies stored millions of dollars of cash — well in excess of the FDIC’s $250,000-per-account insurance limit. In an extraordinary action Sunday, the FDIC guaranteed all Silicon Valley Bank customers’ deposits.

“We have a long history of financial stability and responsible, cautious risk management,” said Kenneth Vecchione, CEO of Western Alliance Bank, in a statement. “This has certainly been a challenging few days for our industry and we appreciate our deep relationships with customers across the bank who continue to choose Western Alliance as their trusted banking resource.”

Charles Schwab says customers are coming back

A person walks by a Charles Schwab location in New York, on November 15, 2021.

Charles Schwab is trying to reassure investors its customers are sticking with the financial broker, even as fear escalates about the banking sector.

The company said Friday it has received “strong inflows from clients” over the past week, bringing $16.5 billion in new business. That demonstrates “the trust clients place in Schwab,” the brokerage said.

“Charles Schwab remains a safe port in a storm, driven by its conservative balance sheet, strong liquidity position, and diversified base of over 34 million account holders who invest with Charles Schwab every day,” the company said in its statement. “We are confident in our approach and in our ability to help clients through all kinds of economic environments.”

On Monday, however, Charles Schwab told a very different story. It had said customers had pulled 4% of their assets out of the bank and the amount of money clients owed the bank had fallen 28%.

Schwab’s stock was down 3% Friday afternoon, though that was well off the low of the day. Shares have fallen 27% since SVB’s bank run a week ago.

Nasdaq delists SVB Financial

The Nasdaq exchange notified SVB on Friday that it will delist SVB Financial Group’s stock, according to an SEC filing.

Shares of SVB were halted on March 10, after the bank’s collapse. The suspension will take place on March 28.

Both the company’s common stock and depositary shares will be delisted from the exchange. SVB said it does not plan to contest Nasdaq’s decision.

Stocks deepen losses as banking fears swell

Stocks deepened their losses Monday afternoon as investors continued to worry about the tumult in the banking sector.

The Dow fell 387 points, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped 1.1% and roughly 1%, respectively.

The Federal Reserve lent banks a record $153 billion last week, showing the immense pressure weighing down the banking sector on the heels of several failures.

Shares of First Republic continued to get pummeled, falling over 25% despite a decision by a group of big banks to lend it a $30 billion lifeline.

West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark for oil, was down about 2%.

Gold futures rose 2.1% as investors sought ways to shelter from the banking turmoil.

Investors also digested new consumer sentiment data from the University of Michigan on Friday that showed that Americans’ optimism about the economy declined in March for the first time in four months.

The CNN Fear & Greed Index was at 25. That’s up from earlier in the week but still indicates extreme fear in the market.

Inside the plan to save First Republic

A?First?Republic?Bank?branch?is pictured in Midtown Manhattan in New York City on March 13.

On Tuesday afternoon, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was in Washington for a previously scheduled banking industry meeting and reached out to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell.

“Very quickly the conversation turned to First Republic,” said a source close to the 48-hour deal to infuse First Republic with $30 billion. “The biggest example of a bank that could go down and shouldn’t go down – a first-class bank.”

Along with Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the FDIC, the group brainstormed ways to backstop First Republic, fearing a chain reaction through other small banks under pressure from customer withdrawals. Sometime Tuesday afternoon, the idea had gelled to infuse the bank with deposits from other big US banks. They were looking to infuse “confidence and capital” into First Republic.

Treasury Secretary Yellen first proposed cash deposits from other banks and Dimon, Gruenberg and Powell agreed. The first four contributors quickly lined up with $5 billion each. In a statement announcing the deal, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo cited a “commitment to helping banks serve their customers and communities.”

Wednesday was a day of phone calls and in person meeting by Dimon, Yellen and others to get more banks on board. In the end 11 banks vowed $30 billion in cash deposits for First Republic.

“There was no special deal, no special rate,” the source said, but rather an effort “to pull together and show confidence” in the banking system.

The source said regulators “wanted it to be private-sector solutions. They didn’t want this to be a government bailout.”

‘We need more.’ Bank selloff signals Wall Street isn’t satisfied with response to bank crisis

Traders work on the floor of the?New?York?Stock?Exchange?on March 16.

The steep selloff in the banking sector on Friday – just a day after a $30 billion rescue of First Republic – is a clear sign that investors still aren’t satisfied with the federal response.

“The market is saying, ‘This is still not enough. We need more,’” Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, told CNN on Friday.

First Republic shares are plunging 25% in afternoon trading, while PacWest is down 12% and Zions is down 6%.

Big banks are also in the red after injecting $30 billion into First Republic, with JPMorgan Chase down 3% and Bank of America falling 4%.

Mills questioned whether the federal government will eventually need to provide a guarantee for all bank deposits, above the $250,000 limit from the FDIC. He also pointed out that US officials are insisting they don’t want to bail out stockholders even as they rescue depositors.

“This tale of two cities between customers and investors is causing more stress with equities. Can you have one without the other?” Mills asked.?

Biden calls on Congress to expand FDIC's authorities to hold banking executives accountable

US President Joe Biden spoke about the US banking system on March 13 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC.?

President Joe Biden is urging Congress to take action to expand the FDIC’s authorities to hold senior bank executives accountable in the wake of the recent Silicon Valley Bank collapse and subsequent fallout in the banking sector.

“No one is above the law – and strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent mismanagement in the future. The law limits the administration’s authority to hold executives responsible,” Biden said in a statement issued Friday. “When banks fail due to mismanagement and excessive risk taking, it should be easier for regulators to claw back compensation from executives, to impose civil penalties, and to ban executives from working in the banking industry again. Congress must act to impose tougher penalties for senior bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing.”

Biden is specifically calling on Congress to take several actions, according to a White House fact sheet also released Friday:

  • Expand the FDIC’s authority to claw back compensation – including gains from stock sales – from executives at failed banks like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank
  • Strengthen the FDIC’s authority to bar executives from holding jobs in the banking industry when their banks enter receivership
  • Expand the FDIC’s authority to bring fines against executives of failed banks

The call on Congress to act comes after Biden on Monday laid out how his administration is taking action to contain Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. The administration said the federal government was acting to backstop depositors’ funds, make sure taxpayers are not on the hook for these moves, hold those responsible accountable and decline to extend relief to investors of Silicon Valley Bank.

Banks borrowed a record amount of money from the Fed's last-resort facility last week

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building is seen on September 19, 2022 in Washington, DC.?

The Fed lent banks a record $153 billion from its discount window last week, the last-resort facility banks use when they have trouble accessing cash.

That shows how much strain is on the banking system at the moment.

“The sharp increase in banks’ emergency borrowing from the Fed’s discount window speaks to the funding and liquidity strains on banks, driven by weakening depositor confidence following one bank winddown and two bank failures,” said Jill Cetina, Moody’s analyst, in a note to investors.

But Moody’s, like federal regulators, noted there’s nothing inherently wrong with the global banking system. None of the banks that borrowed from the Fed’s discount window borrowed on secondary credit terms – emergency, overnight loans that help deeply troubled banks keep the lights on. Those loans come with severe restrictions and more oversight from the Fed.

The fact that the loans the Fed delivered were primary credit “indicates that US bank supervisors consider the banks that needed emergency support ‘healthy’ and not at elevated risk of imminent failure,” Moody’s noted.

First Republic’s credit rating could still get downgraded by Fitch despite $30 billion rescue

A pedestrian walks by a First Republic Bank office on March 16 in San Francisco, California.

Fitch Ratings warned on Friday it could still downgrade First Republic’s credit rating even after the regional bank landed a $30 billion lifeline from big banks.

The ratings company said First Republic remains on rating watch negative despite the $30 billion industry-led rescue. Fitch and S&P Global Ratings both downgraded First Republic’s credit rating earlier this week.

Fitch said it still views First Republic’s franchise and liquidity profile as “significantly weakened” since early last week when stress emerged in the banking industry.

Fitch said it will continue to assess the situation and plans to take rating action on First Republic within the next few business days. The ratings firm said it continues to monitor the bank’s funding and liquidity profile to “assess the stability of the customer deposit base” and the impact of the rescue.

Shares of the San Francisco-based bank are tumbling 20% in premarket trading Friday morning.

Consumer sentiment fell in March for the first time in four months

A customer looks over merchandise at a store on March 14 in Miami, Florida.

Americans’ optimism about the economy dropped in March for the first time in four months, according to a closely watched survey released Friday by the University of Michigan.

The preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 63.4 this month from 67 in February, the university reported Friday.

Economists were expecting it to hold at 67, according to consensus estimates on Refinitiv.

Around 85% of the survey was conducted prior to the turmoil in the banking sector, said Joanna Hsu, director of the university’s Surveys of Consumers, in a statement.

Hsu noted the limited impact of the current banking crisis on consumer sentiment, telling Bloomberg TV Friday morning that “there aren’t enough consumers paying attention to that” yet.

Year-ahead inflation expectations also fell, declining to 3.8%. That’s the lowest reading since April 2021, down from 4.1% in February but well above the pre-pandemic average range of 2.3-3.0%.

However, “with ongoing turbulence in the financial sector and uncertainty over the Fed’s possible policy response, inflation expectations are likely to be volatile in the months ahead,” Hsu said.

The European Central Bank’s board supervising banks holds ad hoc meeting

The European Central Bank is pictured behind EU flags in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on March 16.

The Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank is holding an unscheduled meeting Friday to discuss the turmoil in European bank stocks over the past week triggered by the collapse of two US banks and fears over Credit Suisse.

The Supervisory Board, which oversees Europe’s banking system, “is meeting to exchange views and to provide members with an update on recent developments in the banking sector,” an ECB spokesperson told CNN. The gathering follows a similar ad hoc meeting earlier this week, Reuters reported.

The Supervisory Board holds scheduled meetings every three weeks on the ECB’s supervisory tasks, as opposed to its duties related to setting interest rates.

“Central banks and regulators have reacted swiftly to the concentrated problems in the US and European banking systems during the past week,” economists at Berenberg wrote in a note Friday.“This suggests that it remains highly unlikely that the current turmoil will be allowed to morph into a 2008-style systemic crisis. Still, the fallout will echo through the global financial system as banks turn more cautious for a while … Financial conditions will likely be tighter for a while. This will have consequences for the real economy.”

Dow falls as investors remain skeptical of banking sector health

People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on March 16.

Stocks opened lower on Friday as investors continued questioning how the banking sector will recover from the recent turmoil.

SVB Financial Group, the firm that owned Silicon Valley Bank, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.

Shares of First Republic fell roughly 16% after tumbling over 19% in extended hours, despite a group of banks swooping in to offer the bank $30 billion in deposits Thursday.

Shares of Credit Suisse fell about 9% as investors remained unconvinced about the Swiss lender’s stability. Reports of a possible takeover from UBS or the government heightened the uncertainty around the bank.

Ahead of the Federal Reserve policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, Wall Street sees a roughly 72% probability that the central bank will hike rates by a quarter point, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Traders are also awaiting the latest sentiment survey from the University of Michigan, a leading gauge of consumers’ attitudes toward the current and future strength of the economy.

The Dow fell 182 points, or 0.6%.

The S&P 500 slipped roughly 0.1%.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.02%.

SVB Financial files for bankruptcy

A pedestrian carries an umbrella while walking past a Silicon Valley Bank Private branch in San Francisco, on March 14.

SVB Financial Group, the company that owned the failed Silicon Valley Bank until the US government took it over last week, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Silicon Valley Bank was not included in the bankruptcy filing in New York on Friday. Also not included in the Chapter 11 process are venture capital company SVB Capital and broker-dealer business SVB Securities, which will remain operational.

Trading of the company’s stock has been halted since Thursday, and a bankruptcy was largely expected.

“The Chapter 11 process will allow SVB Financial Group to preserve value as it evaluates strategic alternatives for its prized businesses and assets, especially SVB Capital and SVB Securities,” said William Kosturos, chief restructuring officer for SVB Financial Group, in a statement. “SVB Capital and SVB Securities continue to operate and serve clients, led by their longstanding and independent leadership teams.”

SVB Financial said it had $3.3 billion in unsecured debt and $3.7 billion in stock that could get wiped out in the bankruptcy.

The banking crisis isn't over yet

A Credit Suisse office building is seen on March 16 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Governments around the globe are stepping in with extraordinary rescue plans to keep the banking system stable. It’s not yet clear if they’re succeeding.

US regulators orchestrated a $30 billion cash infusion into First Republic Bank, a regional bank with a similar profile to the failed Silicon Valley Bank. That calmed nerves late Thursday. But First Republic’s stock was down another 14% Friday in premarket trading. Other regionals, including Western Alliance and PacWest were also lower, and Reuters reported that PacWest was working to get a deal similar to First Republic’s.

Meanwhile, investors remained skeptical of Credit Suisse’s ability to stay afloat. The stock fell another 5% in morning trade, as rumors of a takeover – either by UBS or the government – continued to swirl.

The chaos spread to China, whose central bank made a surprise cut to the amount of money that banks must keep in reserve, an effort to keep money flowing through the financial system.

Regulators continue to insist that the banking system is stable. But the Federal Reserve loaned out $150 billion to banks last week, including $12 billion in its new emergency lending program. We’re nowhere close to what banks were borrowing during the global financial crisis – but that’s still a lot of money.

“The glass half-empty view is that banks need a lot of money,” said JPMorgan’s Michael Feroli?in a note to investors. “The glass half-full take is that the system is working as intended.”

We’ll watch closely to see if more banks fail Friday after the market close. This has proven to be a volatile situation, and emotion can turn on a dime.

China makes surprise rate cut to boost banking liquidity and the economy

A man walks past the People's Bank of China building on July 20, 2022 in Beijing, China.

China’s central bank has made a surprise cut to the amount of money that banks must keep in reserve, in an effort to keep money flowing through the financial system and prop up?the economy.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for?almost all banks by 0.25 percentage points, effective March 27.

“[We must] make a good combination of macro policies, better serve the real economy, and maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity in the banking system,” the PBOC said in?a statement.

The late Friday move came as a surprise and follows a week of?turmoil in global financial markets?triggered by the failure of some regional US banks.

As recently as Wednesday, analysts from Goldman Sachs said they were expecting the PBOC to keep interest rates and the?RRR “unchanged” through the first half of 2023.

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The banking meltdown put the Fed in a bind

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, on March 13.

With just a few days to go until the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision, US policymakers are sitting between a rock and a hard place.

The recent?banking sector meltdown, triggered partially by Silicon Valley Bank?crumbling?under the weight of higher interest rates, has led some economists and analysts to call for a?moratorium on rate hikes?until the industry sorts itself out.

At the same time, inflation remains well above the central bank’s goal of 2%, economic data continues to show?labor market strength?and?consumer spending resilience, and Fed officials have?signaled?their intent to tighten monetary policy aggressively until price hikes ease.

“The elevated inflation backdrop means that [the Fed] is in a very delicate situation compared with the past 40 years,” wrote Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY, in a note Thursday. In prior years, the Fed was able to respond “unswervingly” to financial risks by loosening policy without worrying about price stability, he said. But conditions today are “very different with inflation still too high.”

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Global markets rebound after US lenders rescue First Republic Bank

Pedestrians in Pudong's Lujiazui Financial District in Shanghai, China, on January 3.

Markets in Europe and Asia rebounded Friday after First Republic Bank?was rescued?by a group of major US lenders,?easing worries?about the current banking turmoil.

“Some optimism has returned to markets over the last 24 hours, with bank stocks stabilizing on both sides of the Atlantic,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note Friday.

European shares posted gains Thursday as investors were reassured by news that Credit Suisse would tap a lifeline offered by the Swiss National Bank,?borrowing up to 50 billion Swiss Francs?($53.7 billion).

The rally in Europe carried over to Friday, although gains were modest. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.3% in early trade. Germany’s DAX?(DAX)?and France’s CAC 40?(CAC40)?ticked up 0.4% and 0.07% respectively.

Europe’s Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index, which tracks 42 big EU and UK banks, also opened higher, before trading flat by mid-morning. The index had fallen 13% in the week to Thursday’s close.

London’s bank-heavy FTSE 100?(UKX)?inched up 0.6%.

But shares in Credit Suisse?(AMJL)?fell as much as 5% in early trade, eating into gains made Thursday, in a sign that investor confidence in the bank’s future has not been completely restored.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng?(HSI)?closed 1.64% higher, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.73%, Japan’s Nikkei?(N225)?increased 1.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.8% by market close. The rises followed bigger declines on Thursday.

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US stock futures mixed

Stocks: US stock futures were mixed Friday after a consortium of 11 banks came to rescue First Republic with $30 billion of cash to stay afloat. But Credit Suisse continued to sink as the need for a government or private rescue appears more certain.?Dow futures were down 50 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.1%. Nasdaq Composite futures were 0.1% higher. European and Asian markets also bounced higher.?

Fear & Greed Index: 28 = Fear?

Oil & gas: US oil prices were up 1.5% to $69 a barrel. Average US gas prices fell to $3.46 a gallon.

Large banks swoop in to rescue First Republic

First Republic Bank, facing a crisis of confidence from investors and customers, is set to receive a $30 billion lifeline from a group of 11 large banks.

The major banks include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Truist.

The infusion will give the struggling San Francisco lender much-needed cash to meet customer withdrawals and buttress confidence in the US banking system during a tumultuous moment for lenders.

First Republic’s stock, which was halted several times for volatility on Thursday, ended the session up 10%.

Janet Yellen met with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in quiet effort to organize First Republic lifeline

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday met privately in Washington with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon before 11 banks agreed to deposit $30 billion in First Republic Bank to stabilize the teetering lender, according to two people familiar with the matter.?

The meeting served as a culmination of what had been a series of conversations over the last two days between Yellen and other US officials and leaders from some of the country’s largest banks as they sought a private sector lifeline for the battered California bank.?

Yellen had driven the effort from the government side, while Dimon led the effort to organize the bank executives that would eventually get behind the dramatic infusion of deposits.?

Yellen first conceived of the idea of the largest US banks coming together to direct deposits toward First Republic, according to a separate source familiar with the matter. The move was seen as critical to stabilizing the bank’s deposit base – but also a critical signal to financial markets about both the bank and the US financial system.?

Banks borrowed heavily from the Fed's new lending program in a last-resort search for cash

The Federal Reserve loaned out $12 billion to banks this week from its new emergency lending facility, the Bank Term Lending Program, the Fed reported Thursday.

The new program was designed to prevent banks from failing like Silicon Valley Bank last week and Signature Bank on Sunday. As part of the facility, the Fed will loan banks money for up to a year in exchange for Treasury bonds or other high-quality assets that have crumbled in value during the Fed’s historic rate-hiking campaign.

The Fed will lend the banks the original value of their Treasury bonds, preventing them from selling assets at a loss (like SVB did) — a last-resort tactic to raise cash to pay customers’ withdrawals. That ignited SVB’s bank run last week.

America’s banks are sitting on more than $600 billion of unrealized losses from Treasury debt, according to the FDIC. So the Fed’s facility essentially negates that debt.

Although $12 billion is a lot, it pales in comparison to the nearly $152.8 billion banks borrowed from the Fed’s “discount window,” its more traditional lending facility, over the past week. Discount window loans absolutely ballooned from just over $4.5 billion in the prior week.

The Fed has steadily shrunk its balance sheet over the past year to fight inflation, but it added $300 billion to it over the past week. That demonstrates the seriousness of some banks’ cash concerns and the resolve of the Fed to alleviate them.