US financial authorities have taken possession of California’s troubled First Republic Bank, which will be acquired by JPMorgan Chase, government regulators announced today in the latest banking failure.

“To protect depositors, the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) is entering a purchase and assumption agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Columbus, Ohio, to assume all of the deposits and substantially all of the assets of First Republic Bank,” the FDIC said in a statement.

JPMorgan will assume “all deposits, including those uninsured, and a majority of the assets”, California’s Financial Protection and Innovation Department said.

First Republic had failed to come up with a workable rescue plan and last week disclosed it had lost more than US$100 billion (RM446.1 billion) in deposits in the first quarter, causing its shares to plummet.

The federal government stepped in with the FDIC, an agency in charge of guaranteeing bank deposits, and the US Treasury approached six banks last week to gauge their interest in buying First Republic assets, a source told AFP last week on condition of anonymity.

With its assets standing at US$233 billion at the end of March, First Republic would be the second-largest bank to fall in US history – excluding investment banks, like Lehman Brothers – after Washington Mutual’s bankruptcy in 2008. – AFP, May 1, 2023.