First Republic Bank is on the edge of a precipice

Investors are fleeing after a dismal set of results

A pedestrian walks toward a First Republic Bank location in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. First Republic Bank's stock plunged Tuesday after it said depositors withdrew more than $100 billion during last month's crisis, with fears swirling that it could be the third bank to fail after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) — Image: AP

Apr 26th 2023|Washington, DC

The central conceit of most zombie flicks, like “28 Days Later”, a film set in an apocalyptic London, is that a terrible disease has spread. It has turned legions of healthy humans into dangerous monsters. These walking dead now stalk the land: from afar it can be hard to discern if they are living or not. A little more than 28 days elapsed between the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (svb) and the publication of First Republic Bank’s first-quarter earnings on April 24th—45 to be exact—but the earnings made it clear that American banking has at least one walking-dead institution.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “45 days later”