The bank said deposits were $140.05 billion for the first three months of the year, beating analyst estimates of $119 billion. It also said net income included a $9.82 billion preliminary gain on the acquisition and the new SVB unit added $65 million of net interest income to its $850 million of NII for the quarter.
“In an environment of macroeconomic challenges and uncertainties, we continue to operate with solid capital and liquidity positions,” Frank Holding Jr., chief executive officer of Raleigh, North Carolina-based First Citizens, said in a statement. “We remain encouraged by the resiliency of our clients in the face of elevated inflation and rising interest rates and we look forward to continuing to support them.”
First Citizens earnings give investors a first significant look at how its rescue deal for SVB in late March which vaulted it into the top 15 US banks impacted the lender. First Citizens had agreed to buy $72 billion of SVB’s assets at a discount of $16.5 billion, and assumed $56 billion of its deposits. It said at that time that 17 legacy branches will begin operating as Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens.
SVB unravelled in less than 48 hours in early March after a rush of customer withdrawals forced it to take huge losses on sales of securities which lost value as interest rates climbed. First Citizens has experience buying broken rivals. It acquired more than 20 FDIC-assisted banks since 2009, striking a series of deals after the financial crisis from Washington to Wisconsin to Pennsylvania.