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M&A Announcement

Mar 27, 2023

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the First Citizens BancShares conference call to discuss the recent acquisition of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank by its subsidiary, First Citizens Bank. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a questions and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you require operator assistance during the program, please press star and then zero. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce you to our host of this conference, Miss Deanna Hart, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Deanna Hart
SVP of Investor Relations, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you, good morning, everyone. Earlier today, First Citizens and the FDIC issued news releases announcing the acquisition of substantially all loans and certain other assets and assumption of customer deposits and certain other liabilities of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank. Both our press release and investor presentation have been posted on the company's investor relations website. During the call, we will be referencing our investor presentation, following the completion of our presentation, we'll happily take questions. Before we begin our discussion, I would like to remind you that our comments may include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to differ materially from expectations. We assume no obligation to update such statements. Please review the forward-looking statements disclosure on page 2 of the presentation.

Additionally, I would like to remind you that First Citizens is not responsible for and does not edit nor guarantee the accuracy of our teleconference transcripts provided by third parties. It is my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Frank Holding, as well as our Chief Financial Officer, Craig Nix, who will provide an overview of the acquisition and its strategic benefits. We are also pleased to have several other members of our leadership team in attendance with us today who will be available to participate in the question and answer portion of the call as needed. With that, I'll turn it over to you, Frank.

Frank Holding
Chairman and CEO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you, Deanna, and thank you to everyone for joining us on such short notice to discuss a momentous transaction for First Citizens and one that we expect will provide welcome assurance to the depositors and customers of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank. Yesterday, we announced that we would acquire certain assets and assume certain liabilities of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank from the FDIC. At a high level, we acquired $110 billion in assets, $72 billion in loans, and $56 billion in deposits. We did not acquire Silicon Valley Bank capital or Silicon Valley Bank securities or their U.K. division, which was previously divested. In addition, we did not acquire , Silicon Valley Bank Co-Company Limited, the China joint venture, the German and Canadian and Cayman Islands branches, or the Hong Kong representative office.

Before we walk through the details of our presentation, let me say that this acquisition is compelling financially, strategically, and operationally. It is also a great illustration of regulators and banks working together to protect depositors. For those of you less familiar with us, the selection of First Citizens through a competitive bid process reflects not just the attractiveness of our bid, but also the strength, stability, and expertise we are bringing to the legacy SVB business.

We're proud to be recognized in the banking sector for conservatism and strength, evidenced by our exemplary liquidity and capital reserves. This is a major reason why First Citizens has completed more FDIC transactions than almost any bank since 2009. We also have a proven track record of successfully integrating acquisitions, most recently with the integration of CIT Group in early 2022.

That experience gives us great confidence in our ability to structure transactions to maintain our position of strength based on ample liquidity and credit loss protections. It's no different with this transaction. We have worked extensively with the FDIC. Of the transaction closing, we now have a contingent liquidity facility in place with the FDIC to provide additional funding if needed, which combined with our cash on hand amounts to coverage of over 225% of the deposits we are acquiring. Moreover, we have a history of exercising price discipline in such transactions and anticipate room to provide conservative marks for credit and liquidity risk on the loans. We additionally have entered a loss-share agreement with the FDIC to provide further downside protection against potential credit losses.

We see great promise in extending to the venture and tech spaces in Silicon Valley, building on the expertise and experience we've developed through years of supporting North Carolina's own innovative hub, the Research Triangle Park. Together with the legacy SVB team, we are well-positioned to understand the unique financial needs of these sectors and provide creative, highly tailored offerings combined with high touch relationship banking. We look forward to bringing our proven approach to new markets and learning from the legacy SVB market experts who will be joining us.

By leveraging the combined talent and experience of our two banks, we are confident we can deliver new levels of service and expertise to depositors and borrowers alike. Finally, before we discuss the details of this transaction, I also want to note how excited we are to welcome our newest associates to the First Citizens team.

We've known about SVB for a long time and have a lot of admiration and respect for the passion and commitment they have for their customers and their relationship-based approach to banking that mirrors our own values and strategy. We are thrilled to welcome these new associates on board and continue our relationship focused approach to banking. I greatly look forward to what we can all accomplish together as one united team. Moving to page two, this transaction creates valuable scale, enhancing the products we offer while continuing to keep our customers at the center of everything we do. Together, we have total assets of $219 billion, with total loans and leases of $143 billion and total deposits of $145 billion.

We will also strengthen our nationwide franchise operating across 23 states, positioning us to be more competitive nationally. SVB's presence in California accelerates our growth in this important market, particularly in Northern California. We are also pleased to add a strong wealth franchise serving the Northeast, one of the country's most desirable markets.

As part of this transaction, we have the right to acquire the legacy SVB's 20 branch locations and private banking offices, which would expand our footprint to 570 branch locations and private banking offices. Starting on page 3, I want to highlight the compelling strategic rationale for this acquisition as we believe it will be a powerful tailwind for our franchise, delivering sustainable long-term value for all our stakeholders. First, this acquisition will accelerate our growth by building on our current capabilities and unlocking new business opportunities.

We're excited to add SVB's Global Fund Banking business, which serves the venture capital and private equity communities. Global Fund Banking's capital call lending has been the largest driver of loan growth at legacy SVB in recent years. In addition to lending products, Global Fund Banking also provides deposit products, treasury management products, foreign exchange solutions to facilitate cross-border capital flows, which expands the offerings we can deliver for First Citizens' new and existing customers. We believe SVB's private wealth business is a natural fit for our high-touch customer service model and approach, and will accelerate the growth of our wealth franchise, building on our recent expansion in California and adding a strong presence in the Northeast. Second, this transaction builds on our capabilities in innovation and technology sectors.

Despite the current uncertainty, we believe there are long-term secular tailwinds supporting the technology and healthcare businesses that will continue to drive growth in the future. We are committed to continuing to help innovators, enterprises, and investors move bold ideas forward. This acquisition positions First Citizens to support that growth both in Silicon Valley's markets and right here in our own backyard in the Research Triangle Park by combining First Citizens' traditional relationship banking, creativity, and stability with the strengths, relationships, and expertise of legacy SVB. While I know First Citizens is not well known for expertise in the digital and innovation economy, our home market, Raleigh, is ranked second behind Silicon Valley in terms of commercial real estate growth in the innovation market over the past two years, ahead of Austin, Nashville, and Vancouver.

There are similarities between Silicon Valley Bank's client base and products and First Citizens' support of biotechnology and technology companies both in the greater Triangle area and nationwide. The addition of SVB's talented team and deep expertise and relationships will position us as a better partner for all customers in this important segment of the market. Third, this transaction further diversifies our client base while continuing to prioritize relationship banking.

Given their location, expertise, and heritage, SVB has a deep history of serving some of the most innovative new companies in the world. Since its founding, Legacy SVB has focused on cultivating strong relationships with the venture capital community, which over time has expanded the relationships across the private equity community as well. This network has helped to facilitate deal flow opportunities between these firms and the companies in the markets they serve.

We are committed to building on and investing in Legacy SVB's Global Fund Banking business to preserve these strong relationships. This includes maintaining the strong connectivity between Legacy SVB's Global Fund Banking, venture capital relationship management, and private banking teams in order to meet the operating, investing, and personal needs of venture capital and private equity clients. Importantly, as our client base expands and our capabilities evolve, our shared approach to relationship banking and offering highly tailored solutions to serve the unique needs of our clients will remain constant.

Finally, we will maintain our strong risk management culture that has guided us for 125 years. First Citizens is a well-capitalized bank, and post-acquisition, our capital ratios remain within or above our target ranges. In addition, the transaction is structured to maintain our position of strength with ample liquidity and credit loss protections.

Our liquidity not only remains strong and stable, driven by a conservatively managed investment portfolio, but it is enhanced by this transaction with the creation of added on-balance sheet funding and access to significant additional contingency funding. The transaction agreement also included an asset discount of $16.45 billion, and we have entered into loss-share agreements with the FDIC to further limit credit risk. Let's turn to page 4. This transaction unlocks meaningful value for our customers, shareholders, employees, and communities. Starting with customers. Over the past 125 years, a key foundation of our strategy has been a focus on long-term, high-quality relationships. As recent developments in the banking sector demonstrate, these relationships have never been more valuable to us than they are today.

Legacy SVB shared this commitment, and together, we are strengthening our customer value proposition by expanding as a full-service financial services destination that supports customers' needs with highly tailored offerings. Not only are we delivering better capabilities and solutions to our customers, we are reaching more customers and more types of customers. Legacy SVB's relationships, specifically with venture-backed technology and life science companies, complement our existing customer base, and combined, we are well-positioned to grow and better serve all customers.

For stockholders, we expect this transaction to be accretive to tangible book value and earnings per share, and as discussed earlier, includes favorable downside credit and liquidity protections. As I mentioned on the prior slide, it also unlocks significant opportunities to accelerate growth in key franchises like Wealth, which is while enabling us to leverage our unique offerings to expand how we serve new and existing customers.

In addition to these revenue synergies, we also expect to realize cost savings as we leverage common resources, vendor partners, and technologies. Moving to our employees. By joining forces, we bring together not only our complementary capabilities, but also a culture that prioritizes deep client relationships and an innovative approach to meeting their needs. Our associates will be a part of an organization with greater scale, geographic diversity, and digital products and services, which in turn will lead to additional career opportunities and mobility. In terms of how we leverage our team's unique expertise, we look forward to combining our proven approach, which is grounded in long-term stability and growth, with Legacy SVB associates' deep knowledge of the innovation economy.

Over the coming weeks and months, we will be focused on embracing our combined company's business leaders and talent with the goal of incorporating our team's unique business knowledge into our culture and our risk management framework. Finally, for our communities, our organizations share long-standing, thoughtful, and demonstrated commitment to investing in and supporting our communities. We look forward to continuing to make progress on initiatives in the communities in which we operate. Now I'll turn it over to Craig, who will provide additional details on the transaction. Craig?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you, Frank. Turning to page 6, you will see the assets and liabilities we acquired and assumed from the Silicon Valley Bridge Bank. We are bringing over substantially all of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank's balance sheet, excluding approximately $90 billion in held to maturity securities. We acquired total assets of $110 billion, including cash of $35.3 billion and loans of $72.1 billion. Assets were purchased at a $16.45 billion discount, and we paid no deposit premium. On the liability side, we purchased deposits of $54.5 billion and funded the net assets acquired less the asset discount with a 5-year $34.6 billion note payable to the FDIC bearing an annual interest rate of 3.5%.

The balance sheet presented here does not include loan, deposit, or other purchase accounting marks. Once those are determined, the equity created in the transaction will be composed of the $16.45 billion asset discount, less purchase accounting and tax-related marks. In establishing the discount, we assumed a mark for credit and liquidity reserves that we deem conservative. Of the $71.2 billion in loans acquired, 56% are from the Global Fund Banking line of business, 24% from the technology, life science, and healthcare portfolios, and 20% from the private bank. 63% of the $56.5 billion in deposits are non-interest bearing, followed by 21% in money market savings accounts and 15% in checking with interest. Time deposits assumed are de minimis.

As is standard with FDIC transactions, we will have a 60-day right to acquire all bank branches and corporate locations. We will also retain all employees in the acquired businesses. Our team is already on the ground ready to welcome new SVB associates to First Citizens. In the event of unforeseen and unexpected issues, the transaction was structured to limit risks to First Citizens through indemnification for certain pre-closing liabilities existing at legacy SVB, the ability to exclude the purchase of branches from the transaction, and the exclusion of some other assets, including certain international operations. We have established a credit facility with the FDIC that will have guaranteed availability of up to $70 billion to cover potential deposit runoff and or SVB unfunded loan commitments that fund post-acquisition. The term of the facility will be five years.

While we intend to maintain the client relationships we have acquired in this merger, this credit facility gives us downside liquidity protection and ultimately helps reinforce First Citizens' already strong balance sheet position, which we will discuss in more detail on the next slide. Our agreement with the FDIC also includes a loss-share agreement that protects the bank from downside credit risk. If global lifetime commercial loan losses exceed $5 billion, the FDIC will reimburse us for 50% of those losses, and we will reimburse the FDIC for 50% of recoveries related to those loss-share assets. The loss-share agreement calls for loss sharing for a period of 5 years and for us to reimburse the FDIC for recoveries for a period of 8 years.

If actual losses incurred are not as significant as estimated in the loss-share agreement, we have agreed to pay the FDIC a true up of up to $1.5 billion calculated using a formula set forth in the loss-share agreement. SVB has a history of strong credit performance. Despite having the loss-share agreement in place, we do not envision reaching the level of lifetime losses that would trigger a subsequent callback payment to the FDIC at the end of the loss-share term. Frank mentioned earlier that we are very excited about this transaction. We anticipate that it will be immediately accretive to tangible book value per share as well as earnings per share. We expect to maintain our capital ratios within or above our current target ranges without the need to raise additional capital.

The ability to bring on the lines of business and talented personnel of SVB to recognize healthy TBV and EPS accretion, all while maintaining strong capital ratios and providing downside credit and liquidity protection are the reasons why we are very excited about this combination. We worked hard alongside our regulatory partners to find a solution that upholds our commitment to prudent risk management and at the same time establishes a strong capital and liquidity foundation for the new combined bank.

Finally, as part of the consideration for the acquisition, we issued a value appreciation instrument to the FDIC in which we agreed to make a cash payment to the holder equal to the product of $5 million and the amount, if any, by which the average volume weighted price of FCNCA stock over the 2 Nasdaq trading days preceding the exercise exceeds $582.55, provided that in no event will the settlement amount be in excess of $500 million. The value appreciation instrument expires on April 14, 2023, and any payment due would be payable by us in cash. Turning to page 7. We want to reiterate that our liquidity metrics remain solid and as a well-capitalized bank with a highly diverse customer base, First Citizens remains strong, stable and sound. Combined company liquidity coverage is strong.

As part of the combination, we are bringing on $35.3 billion in cash. The FDIC revolver provides another $70 billion in contingent funding. In addition to the strengthened liquidity position as a result of the combination, in an abundance of caution, in March, we took action to increase our FHLB borrowings to $8.5 billion, which increased our pre-acquisition cash balance from approximately $4 billion to approximately $10 billion. In addition, we moved $4.4 billion of unencumbered HTM securities to the FHLB to provide an opportunity for future increased borrowing capacity. Since December 31st, our deposits have grown by more than $1.3 billion. When accounting for cash on hand, available lines and unencumbered securities, the combined company has total liquidity that covers uninsured deposits by over 175%.

First Citizens places importance on a strong risk management framework. This holds true for our investment strategy as well. We have historically focused our investment strategy on stable cash flowing securities that act as a source of liquidity and do not take significant credit or duration risk. As of December 31st, 2022, AFS securities totaled $9 billion with a duration of 3.5 years, while held to maturity or HTM securities totaled $10 billion with a duration of 5 years. Our strategy continues to target investment securities that best position risk exposures to key rate durations with stable prepayment or optionality risks. Finally, it is important to note that post-acquisition, our capital ratios remain within or above our target ranges. On to page 8.

The top of the page highlights the deposit breakout for both legacy banks as well as the estimated pro forma deposit makeup. One of the most immediate benefits of the transaction is the shift in deposit mix as we are acquiring approximately $56 billion in deposits, of which 63% are non-interest bearing demand deposits. This results in an estimated 41% non-interest bearing demand deposit ratio for the pro forma company, which is a 13% increase from what we reported in the Q4. Further, it helps offset some of the changes in mix we've been experiencing due to more pre-hike levels. While overall deposit competition will likely remain for the foreseeable future, we do believe this transaction helps position us to compete in the current deposit rate environment by growing our core deposit base.

Admittedly, there has been a strong amount of runoff from the legacy Silicon Valley Bank this quarter. It is our intent to embrace the talent of our legacy SVB employees, embrace their business capabilities and reiterate to their clients that First Citizens has an unwavering focus on holistic client relationships. We believe that some of these clients will move business that left back to us as depositors around the country know that their deposits are safe with First Citizens. We have long been recognized in the banking sector for conservatism and strength, evidenced by our exemplary liquidity and capital reserves. Post-transaction, we have ample liquidity as discussed on the previous page. First Citizens deposit gathering strategy leverages strong relationships driven by core product offerings to customers to grow balances.

We believe that the acquisition of 20 additional locations in attractive West Coast and Northeast markets will provide the combined bank with access to a more geographically diverse deposit base. The expansion of our footprint helps to complement our nationwide digital direct bank which acts as a channel to quickly and efficiently add balances through competitive product offerings.

Turning to page 9, you will see the impact that this transaction has on our loan portfolio. The combination will further establish our growing commercial lending platform. Will complement our strong existing core consumer retail products. In addition, our geographically diversified and balanced loan portfolio spans unique and differentiated lending verticals, which provides additional strength during these uncertain economic times. While we are still in the initial stages of our assessment, we are encouraged by the strong underwriting practices of Legacy SVB.

For the quarter ending December 31st, 2022, Legacy SVB announced another quarter of solid loan growth driven by one of its lowest risk loan portfolios, Global Fund Banking capital call lending. In fact, for the past 9 years, capital call lending has been the largest driver of loan growth, and the loan portfolio, which is diversified in both investment style and industry, is supported by strong sources of repayment. As of year-end, approximately 70% of loans were in low credit loss portfolios in Global Fund Banking or private banking channels. During the same period, early stage lending, which was historically Silicon Valley Bank's highest risk portfolio, accounted for only 3% of total loans, down from 11% in 2009 and 30% in 2000.

We believe opportunities exist in these legacy SVB business lines, and we will continue to manage these portfolios prudently and effectively while maintaining consistent and strong underwriting standards. We believe that the efforts already executed by the legacy SVB team have positioned the combined bank for long-term success. With that, I will hand it back over to Frank to conclude our formal remarks.

Frank Holding
Chairman and CEO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you, Craig. Now let's take a look at page 10. To sum it up, we list the key takeaways from today's call, which are indicative of why we're excited about combining with SVB. It boils down to a combined company with a strong and stable balance sheet, additional scale and capabilities, a financially compelling transaction, the addition of significant talent and expertise in the innovation economy, a continued focus on long-standing relationships, all while maintaining a strong risk management culture. That's it. Now I'll turn it over to the operator for instructions for the Q&A portion of the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen.

Ladies and gentlemen.

If you'd like to ask a question or any comments at this time, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. As a courtesy to others on the call, we would like to ask yourselves to limit to 1 question and 1 follow-up, and then return the call to the queue. If your question has been answered and you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star followed by 2, and we will now pause for 1 moment to compile our Q&A roster. Our first question is from Kevin Fitzsimmons from D.A. Davidson. Kevin, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Good morning, Kevin.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Congratulations, congratulations on the deal. Was just hoping you might, Craig, be able to give us a few guideposts on EPS accretion and maybe post-deal tangible book on what your best estimates are right now and when it comes to EPS accretion, other than bolting on the loans and the deposits onto the balance sheet, what kind of blended NIM you might see the company having. I know there's a lot of moving parts in there with the increased borrowing and taking on their balance sheet, but just any kind of help you could provide on that front.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

, Kevin, and thanks for the questions. I'll let Elliot address the NIM question in a moment. In terms of we expect healthy TBV and EPS accretion, we're gonna hold off on providing guidance today, and we'll be providing it either in a follow-up call or during our Q1 call, depending on when we get purchase accounting complete. Suffice it to say that the TBV and EPS accretion would be significant. We have provided you with the discount bid on the assets.

I think you may be able to come up with your own version of what that may be by just taking the marks on the loans, we're not gonna put that out today.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Okay. Understood. Understood. Yep.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Okay. As far as the NIM, this will be really subject to estimates and trend and movement.

Frank Holding
Chairman and CEO, First Citizens BancShares

I want to mention we need to tax effect the gain, the mark.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Yeah. I mean, yeah, after you take the marks, you would have to tax effect to get to the bargain purchase gain or the equity created in the transaction, Kevin. Elliot, do you have a view on NIM either?

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Yeah.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

I don't know that we have a number, combined number, but just directionally what we're thinking there.

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

Kevin. I mean, I think if you kind of, walk forward the components, obviously we'll be updating our guidance on , First Citizens kind of standalone. Our guidance from the previous quarter was kind of a flattish NIM this quarter. I think if you roll forward some of the components, you look at SVB's loan yield, 6.06%. You look at refunding that with, certainly the $56 billion in deposits. Their rate last quarter was a 1.18%. Obviously non-interest-bearing costs have gone up a little, but we've switched the mix where it's a little bit more non-interest bearing funded. The purchase money note at 3.50% rate.

I think when you add all that together, NIM's probably shaken out not all that dissimilar from, where First Citizens was previous quarter. You know, a lot more to come there. I think, obviously there's been significant deposit drawdowns. O ur hope is that some of those deposits will return. We'll be updating this really kind of in the coming weeks at our next call.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Got it. Thank you. That's helpful. Craig, could you possibly go over again the equity rights instrument and how that works? I was trying to keep up with you, but just maybe on a high level how to think about that.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Okay. Yeah, that's a good question. It's basically what'll happen is we've given them 5 million units, which are equity appreciation units. The strike price on that is $582. You could think of it as the stock price moves over, if the actual stock price moves over that strike price by $100, we would be at the cap. 5 million times 100 being $500 million would put us at the cap. If that differential is less than that, when they exercise the number, the number could be smaller. It's gonna be paid in cash. We don't anticipate issuing stock, it'll be settled in cash. It expires April 14th, in about 3 weeks it expires.

Does that help?

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Okay. Okay. That helps. That helps.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Yeah.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Basically it'll be paid in cash, right? It's.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

That's correct.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

I guess it's a way to, it's a way for the FDIC to lessen their loss a little bit, in a way.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Yes.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

One last thing.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Sharing the upside.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Right. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, better way to put it. one last one for me on, one of the big issues at SVB from what I understood was just the concentration level on the deposit portfolio. Philosophically, how are you all gonna look at that? Because you did mention, okay, some of those deposits of Silicon Valley may come back, and you'd welcome them, you welcome the customers, how are you gonna manage it so that you're, to manage that concentration level of those industries?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Well, Kevin, I'm not speaking to Silicon Valley's balance sheet management, we maintain a short duration investment portfolio and a healthy amount of cash on hand. The combination of unencumbered securities, cash on hand, and line availability will give us very strong coverage over uninsured deposits. I'll let Tom talk a little bit about the balance sheet management from there and what we plan moving forward, knowing that the nature of these deposits are they're much larger denominated than legacy First Citizens deposits. Tom, just talk a little bit about how you're gonna manage the balance sheet with those deposit inflows and outflows.

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

Yeah. No. To Craig's point, obviously the denominations are larger here, but again, similar to what we do in our legacy markets, we intend to remain focused really on operating accounts here. I think what you'll see us sort of, as in our conversations with, legacy SVB clients here, we'll focus mainly on sort of bringing operating accounts and operating deposits over and not focus as much necessarily on sort of those excess funds and keeping that on the balance sheet, if that makes sense. Overall, I don't think it's really, from a philosophy perspective, that different, that big of a difference from what we do in our legacy markets. It's really just sort of obviously the dollars are larger here.

To Craig's point, as a result of that, we do intend to carry more cash on balance sheets, to be able to support those ins and outflows.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Okay, great. Thanks very much for taking my questions.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

You're welcome. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Stephen Scouten from Piper Sandler. Stephen, your line's now open. Please go ahead.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everyone. I'm kinda curious if you could talk about the 23% mark or, the discount there, I guess. You guys noted that, I think it was 70% of loans in some of the lower risk categories, and kind of, I guess, any mechanics of how you all came to that agreement on that discount, given the historical loss rates at SVB. Is it, I guess, is it fair to say it's more rate driven than anything else? Or how can we think about that?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

We did consider both credit and liquidity risk, but the actual discount and the ultimate equity creation from it needs to be sufficient to support the assets from a capital standpoint. We targeted that discount to support us being within or at the or within or above the target ranges for all of our capital ratios. That's really sort of the anchor to which we attached the amount of the discount.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Okay. Got it. That's still to the guidance you've given, kind of 9%-10% CET1. Is that still the right number to think about?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

That's correct.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Okay, great. Maybe just following up on the non-interest-bearing deposits. I mean, I think from a composition perspective, obviously that sounds great. I think fears in the industry are probably that those types of deposits are the most susceptible for further runoff. How are you guys thinking about that modeling for that, given that this puts you at a much higher loan-to-deposit ratio than you have been traditionally? I mean, I know, Craig, you just noted all the liquidity sources, but just strictly from a deposit perspective, how do you, how do you think about keeping those non-interest-bearing in particular?

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

This is Elliot Howard. You know, I think, one of the main things is obviously the relationship-based approach. We're very excited about the talent at Silicon Valley. These are really industry leaders. To maintain those relationships, I think, you know, a key theme that you've heard probably in this presentation is us protecting our liquidity position. You know, we've got a number of mechanisms there. Certainly the amount of cash that we brought over in the deal is critical. I think, you know, the second one really is that $70 billion line capacity that we have with the FDIC.

Once we look at kind of the available cash, that's in that $35 billion range, the $70 billion in the line, we're well above kind of the deposits that we're bringing over and kind of available liquidity just from this deal. I think, yeah, that's really kind of our position currently on balance sheet. Craig mentioned some of the defensive funding that we've done this quarter as well. We just feel like if anything, we're in a stronger liquidity position than we were before this deal.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

That's great. Just one quick follow-up to that. I think you said 3.5% fixed on the one facility. Did you give the terms on the $70 billion?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

That is to be determined, that rate. It will be a, it'll be a comparable market rate.

Stephen Scouten
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Okay, great. Well, thank you so much, and congratulations.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you so much.

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

Yep. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Brady Gailey from KBW. Brady, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

Hey, thanks. Good morning. Congrats on this deal. My first question.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you, Brady.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

Was just on the asset base. Yeah. Yeah. My first question is on the asset base , $110 billion. I know it looks like roughly $40 billion of that is capital call. You know, over time, you know, how much asset shrinkage should we expect here? I'm just wondering longer term out of this 110, how much do you think is really gonna be, a core part of the new FCNCA?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

You know, Brady, at this stage, it's our intent to continue running SVB lines of business. You know, we wanna ensure their customer base, that they'll be supported at the same level they were supported prior to this acquisition. I don't think we're in a position today to talk about runoff as we don't anticipate that. We like their businesses. A lot of their businesses are similar to what we have in the legacy CIT business or at least adjacent to it and from a lending standpoint. We think this fits. Right now I couldn't tell you what may run off or what may not.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

Okay. You know, Craig, if you look at common equity Tier 1, First Citizens finished at a little over 10% at year-end. Pro forma for this deal, where do you expect that ratio to be? Any comments on, I know you guys are expecting to reengage in a buyback, the back half of this year. This is obviously a big transaction. Does this impact those buyback plans?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

On the buyback, we're in the process of doing our capital plan. That'll be contemplated in there, so I'm not gonna make a comment on that right now. Did you ask about pro forma CET1?

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

Common Equity Tier 1. That's correct.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Yeah, common equity Tier 1. Okay. We're gonna be above our target range on that ratio.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

Okay. Just my last question. I know there's a lot of assumptions that go into pro forma tangible book value per share, but I've seen ranges of +50%-100%, which is eye-popping and a very wide range. I mean, does that seem appropriate to you?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

I think that's a relevant range. Is 0% to 100%, but you're in a relevant range. We do expect significant TBV accretion. It's pretty obvious from the discount we bid on the assets.

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

Yeah. Brady, this is Elliot. I'll answer the question.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

All right. Last question.

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

Yes. Brady, this is Elliot. I'll answer the question a different way. You know, we fully intend to have our Tier 1 leverage ratio, above 8% in this transaction.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

Okay. My last question is just on the assets acquired, is there any way to estimate what the ROA would be on those assets? I think Legacy First Citizens is well north of 1%. Is there any reason to believe that the ROA on those assets couldn't be over 1% from SVB?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

There Yeah, no reason to believe that they could not be in that range.

Brady Gailey
Managing Director of Equity Research, KBW

All right. Thanks, guys.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Brian Foran from Autonomous Research. Brian, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Brian Foran
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Autonomous Research

Good morning. Maybe along similar lines, if you think about ROTCE going forward, is there any reasons or kind of any range you would think is reasonable for what the new franchise could look two or three years down the road?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

I think we're gonna refrain from providing guidance today.

Brian Foran
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Autonomous Research

Got it. The warrant portfolio, SVB used to have a lot of warrants associated with their lending. Is that included in this transaction?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

That... No, it's not. That was, at the holding company level, which do not come over in the transaction.

Brian Foran
Senior Equity Research Analyst, Autonomous Research

Okay. I think most of my other questions were asked and answered. Thank you.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Okay. Thank you for your questions.

Operator

Our next question is from Christopher Marinac from Janney Montgomery Scott. Christopher, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Christopher Marinac
Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott

Hey, thanks. Good morning.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Good morning.

Christopher Marinac
Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott

A standpoint of retaining the depositors, is there a percentage that you need to get to or maybe just even a big picture construct to kind of how this can be successful for you? I didn't know if there was sort of a, minimum or a range that you think about in terms of retaining the depositors as you look out, 6, 12, 18 months.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

I'm, the first part of your question, we had some interference. Do you mind repeating that, please?

Christopher Marinac
Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott

Sure. I just was asking about the retention of deposits and if the retention of deposits was a range that you need to be successful.

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

Yeah. As mentioned earlier, I mean, we're obviously focusing on the operating accounts and sort of based on the information we have seen, it looks like the majority of the deposits that are still there. As you can see, it's heavier in the non-interest bearing and the interest-bearing checking accounts than what typical composition is. That's really sort of where we are focusing. As mentioned earlier, retention of customers, using the expertise at Silicon Valley Bank to do that is really what sort of the coming weeks will be all about.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

I think the point there.

Gotcha. Then, some of the...

We got downside protection on any runoff that may occur.

Christopher Marinac
Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott

Gotcha. Okay. Thank you for that background. Just a follow-up as it pertains to the cash settlement next month. Does that impact the bargain purchase gain or is that separate as you account for that in the future quarters?

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

The cash settlement? You're talking about... Oh, the equity appreciation? Is that right? We believe right now from an accounting standpoint.

Christopher Marinac
Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott

Yes

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

It'll be expensed somewhere. It'll either be potentially reduce the bargain purchase gain or be recognized as an expense, somewhere else in the income statement. It's likely if they exercise it to be recognized in the Q1 , either as a reduction of bargain purchase gain or as an expense.

Christopher Marinac
Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott

Gotcha. Thanks, Craig. I appreciate it, and thanks again for all the information this morning.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Yeah. Appreciate your questions. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is from Brody Preston from UBS. Brody, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Brody Preston
Equity Research Analyst, UBS

Hey. Good morning, everyone. Congrats on the deal.

Craig Nix
CFO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you very much.

Brody Preston
Equity Research Analyst, UBS

I had a follow-up question on the back of. Yeah, of course. Of course. I had a follow-up question on the back of one of Brady's. I understand that the focus is on continuing to manage and kinda grow these business lines. I guess my question relates to the regulatory framework. You know, you've become a Category IV bank, and this deal, puts you much closer to a Category III bank. I'm assuming there's some ability to kinda manage around that. You know, how should we be thinking about the increased, regulatory factors that you might face going from Category IV to Category III, if and when that occurs?

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

You bring up a great point there. I mean, our intent at this point is obviously not to push through into the next threshold. We moved into Category IV with the CIT acquisition and, we've made great progress and feel very good about where we stand from a, you know, risk management perspective and being ready for sort of the in the large bank program and no current plans to sort of go up to the next level there.

Brody Preston
Equity Research Analyst, UBS

Got it. Okay. Just as it relates to retaining kind of key employees and managing the business, managing these various business lines going forward, I guess, have you done any retention kind of agreements with any key Silicon Valley employees at this point? I know you guys have probably been working on this, hammering out the details of the FDIC, so I'm sure there's a lot that needs to be accomplished still. Just, you know, that'll be kind of key to kind of understanding what the pro forma earnings outlook will be for the company going forward.

Frank Holding
Chairman and CEO, First Citizens BancShares

Yeah, you're key. You're onto something very critical and we have a team on the ground right now making connections, but we are highly motivated and focused on retaining key talent there. That is our immediate priority, and that has already started. I can't reiterate enough that we're very excited about the depth of the talent at SVB and are looking forward to getting to acquaint ourselves with it. We certainly will make sure we retain the talent responsible for driving revenue.

Brody Preston
Equity Research Analyst, UBS

Got it. I've got two last quick ones for you. You know, just given the tangible book value accretion, which, you know, just based on the math, it looks like it could be over $1,000 tangible book value here. I guess question would be, would you use some of this as an opportunity to restructure some of your securities book , for the existing loss position that it's already in, just given you can kind of afford to take the hit at this point?

Elliot Howard
Executive Director of Financial Planning and Investor Relations, First Citizens Bank

No. We have no current intent of sort of using this as a restructuring opportunity. As mentioned in what's being brought over, we're not bringing over any material amount of securities as part of the transaction or really any securities as part of the transaction. It's sort of the legacy FCB portfolio that's coming over, which, they've on a relative basis, relatively small losses there.

Brody Preston
Equity Research Analyst, UBS

Got it. Then the last one is, I noticed on slide seven, you said, the deposits have grown by more than $1.3 billion quarter to date. Just wanted to ask, what the mix of that growth looked like before the SVB deal. You know, was it primarily, coming from the CIT Direct Bank or, just help us understand what that deposit growth looks like quarter to date.

Kevin Fitzsimmons
Senior Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, D.A. Davidson

Yeah. The majority of the growth has come through the CIT Direct Bank.

Brody Preston
Equity Research Analyst, UBS

Okay, great. Thank you very much for taking my questions, everyone. I appreciate it.

Frank Holding
Chairman and CEO, First Citizens BancShares

Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently at time for the conference call. I would like to hand over back to Frank Holding for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Frank Holding
Chairman and CEO, First Citizens BancShares

I want to say thank you to everyone for joining us. Again, we believe this transaction is a great outcome for depositors, customers, and shareholders, and we look forward to moving ahead with our new colleagues from Silicon Valley Bank. We're optimistic about the future and confident in our abilities to navigate varying market and economic conditions, just as we've done for decades. Before we close, I do want to recognize all our associates who came together over the past couple of weeks to complete this deal in a very compressed timeframe. Thank you again for your time today, and I hope everyone has a great day.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

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