Citizens Financial Group is considering acquiring the private-banking business of the failed Silicon Valley Bank, while Customers Bancorp is weighing a deal for all or part of the lender, people familiar with the matter told Reuters and Bloomberg, respectively.
West Reading, Pennsylvania-based Customers, whose holding company is led by Jay Sidhu, is seeking co-investors for the SVB deal, sources told Bloomberg. A final decision is yet to be made, and Customers can opt out of pursuing the deal at any time, they added.
The lender has a regional bank offering home and commercial loans in the Northeastern U.S. It also operates corporate specialty banking and digital banking units across the country.
Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank is seeking to make an offer for SVB’s private business, which offers banking, wealth management and trust services to high-net-worth clients, Reuters reported.
The unit contains the vestiges of Boston Private, a wealth manager SVB acquired in 2021 for $900 million.
Citizens has been on an expansion spree over the past two years, with the acquisition of 80 branches from HSBC and a $3.5 million purchase of Investors Bancorp.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized SVB on Mach 10 and has been trying to sell it over the past two weekends. In its second attempt at auctioning, the FDIC split the bidding, so interested parties could make separate offers on the whole bank or the private-banking unit. The bid deadline is 8 p.m. Eastern time Friday.
Representatives for Customers, Citizens and the FDIC declined to comment to the news outlets.
Raleigh, North Caolina-based First Citizens Bancshares had earlier shown interest in buying SVB, Bloomberg reported.
