U.S. First Republic Bank reports poor Q1 results amid deposit outflows

NEW YORK, April 24 (Xinhua) -- First Republic Bank, a U.S. regional bank headquartered in San Francisco, saw a substantial deterioration in business in the first quarter (Q1) following last month's banking crisis leading to the closure of SVB Bank and Signature Bank, according to its latest release issued late Monday.

"With the closure of several banks in March, we experienced unprecedented deposit outflows. We are working to restructure our balance sheet and reduce our expenses and short-term borrowings," said Neal Holland, chief financial officer of First Republic Bank.

The bank's financial results showed that its revenues in Q1 was 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, 15.9 percent lower from the previous quarter and 13.4 percent less than the same period of 2022.

The net interest income in Q1 was 923 million dollars, down 21.4 percent quarter on quarter and 19.4 percent year on year, respectively. Particularly, the net income in Q1 was 269 million dollars with a 32.9 percent plunge compared to the same period last year.

As of March 31, First Republic Bank had 104.47 billion dollars of deposits, down 40.8 percent from Dec. 31, 2022, though it had received 30 billion dollars of uninsured deposits on March 16 from 11 large banks in the United States, which aimed to help enhance liquidity and confidence in the regional bank.

The bank is taking steps to reduce expenses and pursuing strategic options to expedite its progress to strengthen its business and restructure its balance sheet while reinforcing its capital position, according to the release.

Despite stressing its deposit activity began to stabilize from the week of March 27 and has remained stable through April 21, First Republic Bank saw its shares diving over 20 percent in the after-hours trading following its Q1 release of the earnings report.