MADRID, 2 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has expressed his confidence that the phase of the crisis that has hit the US banking system since last March and which has been characterized by the massive loss of deposits due to part of regional entities, after the largest bank in the country by assets has acquired First Republic Bank.
“This part of the crisis is over,” said the American banker, the only survivor of the great financial crisis among the top executives of the country’s large banks, during a conference with analysts.
In this sense, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase stressed that the US banking system “is very stable” and recalled that the regional banks that have presented their accounts “actually obtained good results”, with very modest outflows of deposits.
“They weren’t having bank runs, which were really limited to people who had uninsured deposits that were too large and money that can move very fast and things like that,” Dimon said.
“So yes, I think that’s over. And, obviously, there are always future problems, but I think that’s over for the most part,” he added.
This Monday, the United States regulators announced that JPMorgan had bought the assets of First Republic Bank after its intervention and closure “to protect depositors”, after becoming the third entity to fail in just two months in the North American country.
“First Republic Bank, of San Francisco, California, has been closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which has appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver,” according to a statement published by the FDIC itself, which adds that “to protect depositors” it has proceeded to sell assets to JPMorgan Chase.
In this way, JPMorgan will “assume all the deposits” and “practically all of the assets of First Republic Bank”, after presenting an offer to take over all the deposits of First Republic. “As part of the transaction, First Republic’s 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase,” he specified.
The FDIC explained that “all First Republic depositors will become JPMorgan Chase depositors and have full access to all of their deposits,” while stressing that “deposits will remain FDIC-insured and customers do not have to change your banking relationship to retain deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits”.
As of April 13, First Republic had about 229.1 billion dollars (about 208.325 million euros) in total assets and 103.9 billion dollars (about 94.481 million euros) in deposits.
First Republic Bank, based in San Francisco, was one of the entities targeted during the crisis caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. First Republic’s shares went from trading at $122.50 on March 1 to barely $3 last Friday, when the FDIC intervention was already taken for granted.
Shortly after the collapse of SVB and Signature in March, major US banks agreed to a $30 billion loan to First Republic at the request of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The entity began operations in 1985 with a single office in San Francisco and is known for hosting wealthy clients from the coastal states. It currently has 82 branches, according to its website, most of them in wealthy neighborhoods.
