First Republic: Shares Fall After More Than $100bn Of Withdrawals

Shares in First Republic have tumbled nearly 50% as investors question its future.

The falls came a day after the mid-size US bank said customers had pulled more than $100bn (£80bn) from their accounts amid last month's banking panic.

First Republic had been seen as one of the banks most at risk of failure, after a series of bank collapses raised fears of a crisis in the sector.

It was stabilised by a multi-billion dollar rescue deal.

The firm's update provided a glimpse of how quickly the concerns spread.

The bank said it lost roughly 40% of its deposits in the days following those collapses, as customers rushed to withdraw funds.

It ended March with roughly $104bn in deposits, including $30bn it received from other banks in a rescue plan aimed at shoring up confidence.

First Republic said the situation had since stabilised.

It added that it was pursuing "strategic options" to strengthen its position, including cutting costs by shedding 20% to 25% of its workforce in the coming months.

Problems in the banking sector surfaced in the US earlier last month when Silicon Valley Bank, which was the country's 16th-largest lender, collapsed in the biggest failure of a US bank since 2008.

That was followed two days later by the failure of New York's Signature Bank.

Authorities stepped in to guarantee deposits beyond typical limits in an effort to head off further runs on bank deposits.

But that did not immediately prevent concerns from spreading. In Europe, Swiss officials also brokered a rescue for troubled banking giant Credit Suisse, which saw 61.2bn Swiss francs ($69bn; £55.2bn) leave the bank in the first three months of the year.

Central banks around the world - including the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England - have sharply increased interest rates as they try to curb inflation.

The moves have hurt the values of the large portfolios of bonds bought by banks when rates were lower.

Customers worried about the financial implications for Silicon Valley Bank abruptly pulled funds from their accounts, leading to its collapse. The episode also raised fears about the situation at other firms.