First Citizens unveils revised SVB community plan worth $6.5 billion

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Bloomberg

First Citizens BancShares has agreed to invest more than $6.5 billion in California and Massachusetts communities via an updated community benefits plan, the bank and advocacy groups announced Tuesday.

The agreement will take the place of an $11.2 billion community benefits plan that Silicon Valley Bank reached in connection with its 2021 purchase of Boston Private Financial Holdings. The deal ends months of uncertainty about whether Raleigh, North Carolina-based First Citizens, which bought parts of SVB after it collapsed in the spring, would uphold the failed bank's earlier commitments.

First Citizens' plan consists of $3.6 billion for lending related to the Community Reinvestment Act, $2.5 billion in funds for small businesses, $650 million for mortgages to low- and moderate-income borrowers and $35 million in CRA grants, according to the bank.

National Community Reinvestment Coalition Chief Executive Officer Jesse Van Tol called the agreement a "huge relief" for the communities that stood to benefit from SVB's earlier community benefits plan. NCRC is one of the organizations that signed the deal with First Citizens.

"This is how you show you're serious about uplifting the most neglected communities in your service area," Van Tol said in a statement.

SVB agreed to the original $11.2 billion community benefits plan shortly after it said it would purchase Boston Private for $900 million. By the time regulators closed SVB last March, the Bay Area bank had funded about $3.1 billion of that agreement.

The original plan called for $5 billion in small-business loans, $4.8 billion worth of Community Reinvestment Act loans and investments, $1.3 billion in residential mortgages to low- and moderate-income borrowers and $75 million in charitable contributions.

The $6.5 billion that First Citizens pledged under the new plan, plus the funds contributed by SVB before its demise, total $9.6 million, or 14% below the $11.2 billion target in SVB's original plan. 

The investments will be focused in Northern California and Massachusetts, where Silicon Valley Bank maintained large customer bases prior to its failure. First Citizens said it worked with community groups in both states to hash out a plan that would fulfill many of the same obligations previously agreed to by SVB. 

"We are pleased that the bank recognizes the role that small businesses play in the health and vitality of our Massachusetts communities and the critical need to support development of affordable housing," Emily Haber, CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, said in a statement.

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First Citizens is also bound by a $16 billion community benefits plan related to its 2022 purchase of CIT Group. That agreement is unrelated to the bank's acquisition of parts of SVB.

"For its entire 125-year history, First Citizens Bank has taken great pride in our continuing efforts to support clients, customers and associates, as well as the communities in which we live and work," First Citizens CEO Frank B. Holding Jr. said in a statement.

The $213.8 billion-asset bank doubled in size last spring when it agreed to acquire $110 billion of assets from the wreckage left behind when SVB failed.

It has spent much of 2023 integrating the parts of SVB that it bought. Early signs indicate the process is going smoothly. First Citizens reported resilient deposit growth in the third quarter and outlined a fourth-quarter projection of rosier profitability metrics than analysts had predicted.

First Citizens is the first institution that made an acquisition during the spring banking crisis to unveil an updated community benefits plan, according to Van Tol of the NCRC.