【来源龙腾网】

正文原创翻译：

(资料图片)

In February, First Republic Bank’s well-heeled customers were yanking money from their accounts. The bank tried to stem the tide by offering higher rates on certificates of deposit. Even that was a tough sell.

二月份，第一共和银行的富裕客户正在从他们的账户中提取资金。该银行试图通过提供更高的存款利率来遏制资金流失。但即使这样也难以说服客户。

Jim Herbert, the bank’s 78-year-old founder, usually a reassuring presence, slammed his hand on the table during an all-hands meeting. We’ve got to get more deposits, he said, according to people familiar with the matter.

据知情人士透露，这家银行的78岁创始人吉姆·赫伯特通常是一副气定神闲的样子，但在这一次全员会议上，他重重地拍打着桌子，表示“我们必须获取更多的存款”。

That was before the March banking panic that toppled two of First Republic’s peers, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Its troubles only worsened after that.

接着在3月份，银行业恐慌爆发，该银行的两个同行——硅谷银行和Signature Bank都倒闭了。此后，该银行的困境只变得更加严重。

Early Monday morning, regulators seized First Republic and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in the country.

周一早间，监管机构接管了第一共和银行，并达成将该行大部分业务出售给美国最大银行摩根大通公司(JPMorgan Chase & Co., JPM)的交易。

The collapse of First Republic marks the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, behind the 2008 collapse of Washington Mutual Inc. It also spells the end of what was considered one of the most successful strategies in banking: luring wealthy depositors and giving them five-star service.

第一共和银行的崩塌是美国历史上第二大银行倒闭案。一度被认为是银行业最成功的策略之一也由此终结，该策略就是吸引富有储户并给予他们五星级的服务。

Few could have predicted the speed and magnitude of the March bank run. First Republic lost more than half of its deposits, around $100 billion, in just a few days. Yet as Mr. Herbert’s urgent message reveals, the bank’s business was already fraying.

几乎没有人预测到3月银行挤兑的速度和规模。第一共和银行短短几天内流失了约1,000亿美元存款，相当于其存款总额的一半以上。然而，正如Herbert的紧急信息所揭示的，该银行的业务此前已经出现了裂纹。

First Republic’s undoing was triggered by the Federal Reserve’s rapid series of interest-rate increases, which led depositors to seek better returns elsewhere. That meant it had to pay more to keep them, just when rising rates were battering the value of its mortgage portfolio. It was a problem obvious in hindsight, but First Republic, among others, thought they would survive the Fed’s inflation fighting just fine.

第一共和银行的困境是美联储一系列快速加息引发的，这些加息促使储户到其他地方寻求更好的回报。这意味着该行需要支付更多的钱留住储户，同时利率上升导致住房抵押贷款组合价值受到冲击。回头来看，这个问题显而易见，但第一共和银行等银行当时都认为，它们将在美联储对抗通胀的政策下安然无恙。

“Clients stay with us,” Mr. Herbert told investors last November. “They grow, they compound, their deposits compound, their loans compound, and they bring their friends. It’s not a complicated model, and it works in all environments.”

“客户会留在我们这，”Herbert去年11月对投资者说。“客户会增长，会复合式增长，他们的存款有复利，他们的贷款有复利，他们会介绍朋友来。这个模式并不复杂，在所有的环境下都是有效的。”

A spokesman for Mr. Herbert declined to comment.

Herbert的一位发言人不予置评。

This wasn’t supposed to happen. First Republic, based in San Francisco, was a big bank with a small-town feel, the ultimate relationship bank. Wealthy customers, the thinking went, wanted high-touch service more than a few extra dollars in interest on their deposits.

该行的崩塌本不该发生。总部位于旧金山的第一共和银行是一家具有小城镇银行风格的大银行，是终极版关系银行。其理念是，高净值客户更想要的是高接触服务，而不是从他们的存款中多赚一点利息。

First Republic gathered these clients, paid them minimal interest and used their deposits to fund mortgages. More deposits meant more loans for condo projects in Manhattan or second homes in Hawaii. First Republic got back far more from these borrowers—3.03% in interest charged on average in 2021—than it paid out to depositors, 0.12% on average.

第一共和银行吸引了这些客户，向他们支付非常低的利息，并用他们的存款发放房贷。存款更多，就意味着可以为购买曼哈顿公寓项目或在夏威夷买二套房提供更多贷款。第一共和银行通过发放这些贷款获得的回报远高于向储户支付的利息，2021年平均收取3.03%的房贷利息，向储户支付的利息平均为0.12%。

These loans often had bespoke features, and they almost never went bad.

这些贷款通常有定制的特点，而且基本从未变成坏账。0010