First Republic lost $72 billion in deposits amid bank turmoil

First Republic (FRC) said Monday it lost a net total of $72 billion in deposits during the first quarter, an outflow that would have topped $100 billion if not for a rescue from 11 of the nation's largest banks.

Customers pulled their money from the San Francisco institution following the March 10 failure of Silicon Valley Bank, an event that triggered panic across the banking system and caused depositors to seek the perceived safety of bigger financial institutions.

First Republic tried to weather the turmoil by borrowing from the Federal Reserve, receiving $30 billion in uninsured deposits from 11 of the country’s largest banks and hiring advisers to pursue a number of options, including a sale.

Despite these moves First Republic's total deposit balance still fell by a net total of 41% during the quarter, to $104.4 billion, according to its first-quarter earnings report released Monday. Without the $30 billion infusion from the 11 rival banks its net outflow would have been $102 billion. The net outflow was considerably more than expected.

The disclosures sent First Republic's stock spiraling in after-hours trading, down as much as 21%. Its stock has dropped more than 85% since January. On Monday it closed the trading day up 12%.

"The future of this company is very uncertain," CI Roosevelt Associate Partner Jason Benowitz told Yahoo Finance. First Republic, he added, "lost so much in deposits, they have to replace that funding somehow, so they’re doing it with borrowing.” The borrowing will “really weigh on their profitability both in the reported quarter and going forward.”

The bank said Monday that outflows began to stabilize the week of March 27 and deposit activity "has remained stable" through April 21. Its balance as of Friday was $102.7 billion, a drop of 1.7% since the end of the quarter that the bank attributed to seasonal client tax payments.

First Republic also said Monday that it is taking steps to increase its amount of deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, trim its borrowings and decrease loan balances to correspond with a reduced reliance on uninsured depositors. It also plans to reduce its workforce by 20-25% in the second quarter.

"Despite the uncertainty of the past two months, and while average account sizes have decreased, we have retained over 97% of client relationships that banked with us at the start of the first quarter," First Republic CEO Michael Roffler said on a conference call following the release of results. The company didn't take questions from analysts.

Many other regional banks also reported deposit outflows during the first quarter, although First Republic’s drop was more severe. A Swiss banking giant, Credit Suisse, also said Monday that its customers withdrew roughly $75 billion in deposits during the quarter.

First Republic, like many regional banks, is trying to adapt to a period of higher interest rates as deposit costs rise across the industry while loan margins shrink. Its first-quarter earnings of $269 million were down by 30% from the fourth quarter and 33% from the year earlier period.

Its net interest income, which measures the difference between what it makes on its loans and pays for its deposits, dropped 21% from the fourth quarter and 19% from the first quarter of 2022.

On Friday, Moody’s cut First Republic’s preferred stock rating as part of a larger downgrading of 10 other regional banks, citing “a deterioration in the operating environment and funding conditions for US banks.”

The bank on Monday offered its first public account of how the events of March transpired inside the company. As of March 9, the day before regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank, its deposits were $173.5 billion, down just slightly from the year end. On March 10, it began experiencing "unprecedented deposit outflows."

It began borrowing money from the Federal Reserve, JPMorgan Chase and the Federal Home Loan Bank. Borrowings peaked on March 15 at $138.1 billion, at which point it had $34 billion in cash. That was the day before it received its $30 billion deposit infusion from 11 other banks.

That support from rivals, it said, allowed it to reduce its short-term borrowings. By April 21, it said, total borrowings had decreased to $104 billion. It also suspended common and preferred stock dividends and eliminated executive bonuses.

"We moved swiftly and leveraged our high-quality loan and securities portfolios to secure additional liquidity," First Republic Chief Financial Officer Neal Holland in a release. "We are working to restructure our balance sheet and reduce our expenses and short-term borrowings."

Since mid March the bank has been exploring multiple options that might restore more stability, including raising capital or a sale. It said Monday that it is "pursuing strategic options to expedite its progress while reinforcing its capital position."

One research firm that covers the banking industry, Wedbush Securities, said earlier this month that First Republic faces a "Hobson's choice in which it essentially has no other choice than to move forward as a standalone company" due to the amount of unrealized losses on its balance sheet.

These don't count as actual losses until they are sold or if First Republic were to be acquired. Many other lenders also have billions in unrealized losses due to aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve that lowered the value of bank assets.

Even a sale of First Republic at $0 a share is unlikely, Wedbush said, because any buyer would still essentially have to pay billions to absorb those losses.

The only way First Republic gets sold, Wedbush said, is if regulators were to seize the bank and sell off its assets at a bargain price. It expects the bank to stave off that type of regulatory seizure and “grind it out as a standalone company for the foreseeable future.”

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein told Yahoo Finance earlier this month that the federal government will need to provide some help for First Republic to find a buyer due to the “hole” on the lender’s balance sheet.

“I think First Republic Bank is clearly on a watchlist, and probably somebody at some point will buy it. But the challenge there is that it needs government assistance,” Rubenstein said earlier this month on Yahoo Finance Live.

A lot of money is riding on its fate. Everyday investors have bet $245 million on First Republic stock since the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, according to Vanda Research, the third highest inflow to a specific bank stock behind Bank of America and Charles Schwab (SCHW).

It also has one of the highest levels of interest among so-called short sellers betting on the stock to decline, according to analytics firm S3 Partners, accounting for $480 million in such bets over the last 30 days.

First Republic "will be a bellwether of sentiment for the sector," Vanda said in a note last week.

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