President Joe Biden is calling on independent federal regulators to reinstate "commonsense safeguards" rolled back by former President Donald Trump that administration officials say are partially to blame for the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

First Citizens Bancshares Inc., one of the nation’s largest regional banks, is buying large pieces of Silicon Valley Bank more than two weeks after the lender’s collapse sent tremors through the banking system. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said First Citizens is acquiring all of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits, loans and branches, which will open Monday morning under the new ownership. 

First Citizens BancShares Inc. agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank, which was seized by regulators following a run on the lender.

The bank agreed to take on all deposits and loans, a deal that includes the purchase of about $72 billion SVB assets at a discount of $16.5 billion, according to a statement from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The agency took control of the bank after SVB collapsed earlier this month.

The Silicon Valley Bank finally has a buyer. 

On Sunday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company of Raleigh, North Carolina entered a purchase agreement for all deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, National Association.

"The 17 former branches of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, National Association, will open as First–Citizens Bank & Trust Company on Monday, March 27, 2023," the FDIC said in a statement. 

Federal Reserve officials on Friday said there was no indication financial stress was worsening as they gathered at a policy meeting this week, a fact that allowed them to stay focused on lowering inflation with another interest rate increase.

In debates about who to blame for failures at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and fears of contagion as we see UBS buy out Credit Suisse, a major angle is being overlooked: the wide swath of common ground on this issue.

CEOs Greg Becker of Silicon Valley Bank and Joseph DePaolo of Signature were compensated last year $9.9 million and $8.6 million respectively just before their banks failed and the FDIC had to bail out SVB's depositors.

We are in consensus: we must end profiteering from bank failures.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that the federal emergency actions to back up Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank customers could be deployed again in the future if necessary.

“We have used important tools to act quickly to prevent contagion. And they are tools we could use again,” Yellen said in written testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee.

“The strong actions we have taken ensure that Americans’ deposits are safe. Certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted,” she added.

In the hours after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10, Pentagon officials who work directly with startups that develop national-security technologies grew increasingly concerned.

Would startups that had money in the bank need to stop work? If that happened, would there be supply-chain disruptions? Would a company under financial stress put its intellectual property at risk? 

Officials prepared different courses of action to get cash to companies, if needed.

As banks and regulators scurry to respond to the most perilous industry conditions since the 2007-08 financial crisis, experts say one persistent issue needs attention: risk oversight that’s not always up to the job.

Board-level risk committees at many banks have neither the clout nor the expertise to push back against corporate leadership, risk professionals say, a weakness that should be addressed in the wake of the recent bank collapses.

Turmoil within the banking sector is likely to bring a "vicious" start to the end of the bear market in U.S. stocks, according to Morgan Stanley.

Michael Wilson, the chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley and a longtime Wall Street bear, said in an analyst note on Monday that the stock market is in the early and painful stages of exiting the bear market than began in the summer.

"The last part of the bear can be vicious and highly correlated," he said. "Prices fall sharply via an equity risk premium spike that is very hard to prevent or defend in one’s portfolio."