First Citizens BancShares Inc.’s deposits surpassed estimates following its rescue deal for Silicon Valley Bank after a run on deposits wiped out that lender.
The bank said deposits were $140.05 billion for the first three months of the year, beating analyst estimates of $119 billion. The SVB acquisition added a $9.82 billion preliminary gain to First Citizens’ net income and contributed $65 million of its $850 million in net interest income for the quarter, it said in a statement.
First Citizens earnings give investors the 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.
“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 forecast full-year deposits to drop slightly, ending the year between $132 billion and $137 billion — a range that still beat analyst estimates. It expects adjusted non-interest expenses to hit between $1.25 billion to $1.3 billion next quarter, from $677 million in the first three months of the year.
The company also predicts its net-charge off ratio for the full year in the range of 25 to 35 basis points. Second quarter charge-offs would be in the 35 to 45 basis point range, which includes a $45 million charge-off related to the SVB acquisition included in purchase accounting.
In an “abundance of caution,” First Citizens also increased funding with the Federal Home Loan Bank system by $4.3 billion in March, when the turmoil engulfed a number of regional lenders including New York-based Signature Bank. Provisions for credit losses were $783 million in the first quarter, compared to $79 million at the end of the year, owing to the SVB acquisition, it said.
SVB unraveled 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.
(Updates with additional earnings details throughout.)
