Commercial Record file photo
Regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank early Monday, making it the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, and promptly sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase Bank in a bid to head off further banking turmoil in the U.S.
But the bank, which had one branch in Greenwich, was still among Fairfield County’s top residential mortgage lenders. With $258.57 million in volume last year, First Republic ranked sixth among lenders for residential purchase mortgage volume in Fairfield County, according to The Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record. The bank had done $286.36 million in residential purchase lending in 2021, ranking eighth in Fairfield County.
The bank brought in volume with fewer loans compared to some other lenders. First Republic’s 165 loans in 2022 ranked eighth among bank lenders and 18th among all lenders in Fairfield County.
JPMorgan Chase had the most residential purchase mortgages among bank lenders in Fairfield County with 394, and Total Mortgage Services had the most among all lenders in the county with 438. Chase did $327.49 million in residential purchase mortgages in Fairfield County last year, and Total Mortgage Services did about $178.57 million.
First Republic did little commercial real estate lending in Fairfield County during the previous two years, with one purchase loan in 2021 and four commercial real estate refinances total in 2021 and 2022.
The FDIC said early Monday that First Republic Bank’s 84 branches in eight states will reopen as branches of Chase and depositors will have full access to all of their deposits.
Regulators worked through the weekend to find a way forward before U.S. stock markets opened.
“Our government invited us and others to step up, and we did,” Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement Chase released Monday.
Before Silicon Valley Bank failed, First Republic had a banking franchise that was the envy of most of the industry. Its clients – mostly the rich and powerful – rarely defaulted on their loans. The bank has made much of its money making low-cost loans to the wealthy, which reportedly included Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Associated Press staff writer Ken Sweet contributed to this report.
