Experts weigh in after First Republic Bank shares plunge
Turmoil in the financial system returned this week as shares of First Republic Bank, the nation's 14th-largest lender, plummeted more than 75%. The selloff took hold after the bank revealed that depositors had fled en masse last month after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. The ongoing distress at First Republic rekindled questions about whether the banking industry has regained solid footing or teeters on the brink of wider failure. While the financial system remains under stress, experts said, the current unrest is unlikely to pose a systemic risk, since the damage is contained within a relatively narrow group of banks vulnerable to high interest rates and depositor panic. Customers line up outside of the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., March 13, 2023. Still, the ultimate outcome is difficult to predict, in part because the extent of the fallout depends on how depositors respond to th