, Columnist
SVB’s Bargain-Bin Sale Helps Save Regional Banking
The buyer-friendly terms for First Citizens instills confidence across the sector.
First Citizens cuts a great deal.
Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg
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In selling Silicon Valley Bank to First Citizens on Monday, the government agreed to terms so buyer-friendly as to seem masochistic. In doing so, it might have just saved America’s regional banking industry.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is parting with the risk-incompetent lender at a price that it hopes will ensure its safety under new ownership. What that price is — and more than 36 hours after announcement, it is still the subject of much debate — matters less than how the market took the news.