First Republic’s Survival Plan Could Come at the Cost of Its Prized Wealth Unit
- Measures to shore up finances may crimp wealth management
- Lender remains ‘fully committed’ to business, CEO Roffler says
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First Republic Bank spent decades building its wealth-management franchise into a $290 billion behemoth. Now, that business may become a casualty of the bank’s efforts to save itself.
As part of an attempt to shore up its finances amid a rush of customer withdrawals, First Republic is reversing two key pieces of its old strategy. It’s vowing to rely less on big depositors, who are more likely to yank their money in times of trouble. And it will focus on loans that can be sold on the secondary market — hardly the interest-only jumbo mortgages that attracted legions of wealthy borrowers.