First Citizens BancShares, Inc.

What does First Citizens own?
The company owns First Citizens Bank & Trust, the Silicon Valley Bank operations it acquired, CIT commercial lending businesses, and its southeastern branch network.

Is First Citizens publicly traded?
Yes. It trades on the Nasdaq under tickers FCNCA and FCNCB, with the Holding family controlling voting power through Class B shares.

Who founded First Citizens?
The Bank of Smithfield was founded in 1898 in Smithfield, North Carolina. The Holding family has led it for four generations.

Where is First Citizens headquartered?
The company is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Did First Citizens buy Silicon Valley Bank?
Yes. It acquired SVB's deposits and loans from the FDIC in March 2023 after the bank's collapse, roughly doubling its assets.

Who owns First Citizens?
Public shareholders own economic interests, but the Holding family controls voting through dual-class shares. Frank B. Holding Jr. is chairman and CEO.

How big is First Citizens?
Approximately $215 billion in assets and $15 billion in annual revenue, making it a top-20 US bank.

The Bank of Smithfield opened in Smithfield, North Carolina in 1898, a small-town lender founded by the Holding family's predecessors. Three generations of Holdings led it for the next century as it grew through acquisition into a solid southeastern regional without ever drawing national attention.

The pattern that defined modern First Citizens was buying distressed institutions: it made a specialty of bidding on failed banks in FDIC auctions, acquiring more than two dozen through the financial crisis era and beyond. Each deal added assets and branches at favorable terms with FDIC loss-sharing protection.

The 2022 acquisition of CIT Group for approximately $2.2 billion added commercial lending scale and New York presence. Then came March 2023: when Silicon Valley Bank failed, First Citizens won the FDIC auction, acquiring substantially all deposits and loans plus a loss-sharing agreement and an equity appreciation instrument that made the deal almost unprecedentedly favorable.

Integration completed through 2024-2025 with the combined bank operating both the First Citizens branch network and the retained SVB brand for innovation banking, producing the franchise it is today.

As a regional bank, its sustainability posture centers on community banking obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act, with modest environmental reporting compared to larger institutions.

The bank's social footprint is primarily financial access in southeastern communities plus its technology sector financing role. No consumer-facing certifications apply.

The stronger credential is behavioral: a 127-year record of conservative management without the blowups that marked larger banks, though the concentrated family control structure raises the usual governance questions.

SVB acquisition terms: The deal's favorable terms, including loss-sharing and equity appreciation that generated billions in benefit to First Citizens, drew scrutiny over whether the FDIC underpriced the failed bank's value.

Concentration risk: Inheriting SVB's concentrated tech deposit base carries the same flight-risk dynamics that contributed to the original failure, a structural exposure the bank manages through diversification.

Family control: The dual-class structure that concentrates voting power with the Holding family limits shareholder influence, a governance feature critics periodically raise.