Why did JPMorgan Chase buy First Republic out of receivershi

[xray]

Quartz
Why did JPMorgan Chase buy First Republic out of receivership?
Heather Landy
Mon, May 1, 2023, 9:37 AM EDT

You can ask why JPMorgan Chase agreed to buy the failed First Republic Bank out of regulatory receivership. But a better question might be, why not? As JPMorgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon explained in a company press release: “This acquisition modestly benefits our company overall, it is accretive to shareholders, it helps further advance our wealth strategy, and it is complementary to our existing franchise.” In other words, no big deal. And it really isn’t a big deal compared to JPMorgan’s $3.7 trillion in assets at the end of March, which will now grow by roughly $200 billion thanks to the purchase of First Republic.

It’s not often that CEOs enter high-profile bidding contests for things they expect to just “modestly benefit” their companies. But it’s also not often that a $3.7 trillion-asset bank gets instantaneous regulatory approval to gobble up substantially all the assets of a $229.1 billion-asset bank, plus $104 billion in deposits, overnight.

The FDIC says the resolution of First Republic “involved a highly competitive bidding process and resulted in a transaction consistent with the least-cost requirements of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.” As part of the deal, the FDIC and JPMorgan will share in the losses, but also in any potential recoveries, on residential and commercial loans made by First Republic. JPMorgan Chase will not be assuming First Republic’s corporate debt or preferred stock as part of the deal.

All 84 First Republic offices in eight US states will reopen today (May 1) as branches of JPMorgan Chase, and customers of the former First Republic will have “full access to all of their deposits,” the FDIC said.

All told, the FDIC estimates that the receivership of First Republic will cost its Deposit Insurance Fund, which is financed mainly by assessments on US banks, about $13 billion.

“Our government invited us and others to step up, and we did,” Dimon said in JPMorgan Chase’s statement about the deal. “Our financial strength, capabilities and business model allowed us to develop a bid to execute the transaction in a way to minimize costs to the Deposit Insurance Fund.”

Dimon worked closely with US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen in March to drum up a combined $30 billion deposited into First Republic by 11 big US banks.

The rescue attempt failed. On April 24, First Republic disclosed that customers had yanked more than $100 billion in deposits from the bank in the first quarter, triggering another crash in First Republic shares and ultimately landing the bank in receivership. And Dimon once again was there to assist.

A full-blown acquisition of a bank is far riskier than a deposit infusion. Dimon, of all people, knows this. Over the years, he has made no secret of his regrets over buying Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual in 2008. While those acquisitions burnished his role as the white knight of banking, riding to the rescue of troubled institutions that otherwise posed risks to the broader financial system, they also opened his company to billions of dollars in unforeseen legal costs. As Dimon wrote in 2015 in a letter to shareholders (pdf):

No, we would not do something like Bear Stearns again—in fact, I don’t think our Board would let me take the call. The WaMu deal might still make sense but at a much lower price to make up for the ongoing legal uncertainty (including the government’s ability to take away our bargained-for indemnities). I did not, and perhaps could not, have anticipated such a turn of events. These are expensive lessons that I will not forget.

JPMorgan Chase shareholders are trusting that’s the case. And there is reason for them to be optimistic. Though caught up in a panic that seems contained to banks with unusually heavy amounts of uninsured deposits and balance sheets overburdened with interest rate risks, First Republic was in far better shape than most banks were in 2008, when many institutions were concentrated in toxic assets with low chances of recovery and high amounts of legal risk.

JPMorgan shares are responding positively to the First Republic news

JPMorgan Chase says it will take a $2.6 billion one-time gain tied to the transaction, but also $2 billion in related restructuring costs spread across 2023 and 2024. Excluding those items, the acquisition is expected to add more than $500 million a year to JPMorgan’s net income.

In a sign of investor confidence in the move, JPMorgan shares, which closed Friday at $138.24, were up more than 4% in pre-market trading on Monday.

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Live Long and Prosper....

[xray]

Fortune
How JPMorgan turned First Republic’s nightmarish week into a dream scenario for shareholders

Sheryl Estrada
Tue, May 2, 2023, 7:04 AM EDT

We’re less than six months into 2023, and there have been three regional bank failures. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, and on Monday, First Republic Bank was shut down by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Last week, I spoke with an analyst who pointed out that in addition to SVB’s bank run causing First Republic trouble, a decades-old business model of offering wealthy borrowers substantial mortgages, usually at low rates, wound up putting the bank in a vulnerable position amid the Fed’s rate hikes in the past year.

Now, JPMorgan Chase—the largest bank in the U.S.—has taken over First Republic, in a deal negotiated by regulators. JPMorgan will acquire the substantial majority of First Republic’s assets, including $173 billion of loans, $30 billion of securities, and $92 billion of deposits. How did JPMorgan position itself for such an acquisition?

My colleague Shawn Tully’s new report, “JPMorgan clears the First Republic wreckage—and notches a $92 billion coup for investors who love the deal,” provides insight. Congress passed a landmark law in 1994 that allowed America’s banks to merge across state lines with few restrictions, Tully explains. The total share of the nation’s deposits that any one entity could hold was limited to 10%, as well as restricting the percentage within a state to 30%.

“By 2014, the nation’s three largest players, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, had grown quickly—in part via their respective rescues of Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia in the Great Financial Crisis—to exceed the 10% ceiling. Hence, the rule has essentially blocked the three behemoths from acquiring any rival lenders for a decade,” Tully writes. “The 1994 act, however, provided a loophole that allowed waivers from the 10% maximum for buyers that stepped up to rescue failing lenders that the FDIC stood poised to shut down.”

JPMorgan benefited from this loophole when the banking giant purchased virtually all the assets of First Republic from the FDIC “clearing the wreckage from the second largest banking failure in U.S. history, a disaster exceeded in scale only by the 2008 collapse of WaMu,” Tully writes.

So what do JPMorgan shareholders have to gain? JPMorgan achieved “what looks like a coup for its shareholders that at the same time stabilized the shaky outlook for regional banks,” he writes.

For starters, the deal has already given JPMorgan’s stock a boost. The bank was able to land First Republic’s assets in an auction that included a number of rival bidders. “Despite the competitive nature of the purchase, CEO Jamie Dimon appears to have secured highly favorable terms. Start with those $92 billion in deposits. They’re far from the ‘hot money’ amassed from tech hotshots and super-high-net worth individuals that fled when the bad news started spreading.”

He continues, “Many of the customers parked their millions at First Republic because it provided them with inexpensive ‘jumbo’ home loans, a practice that Dimon declared dead on the conference calls where he and CFO Jeremy Barnum explained the transaction.” You can read more about what shareholders have to gain and how JPMorgan was already leading in the deposit wars here.

Sheryl Estrada
[e-mail]

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Live Long and Prosper....