Last Updated: April 2025 (Nationwide)
First Republic Bank Common and Preferred Stock Investigation
In May 2023 San Francisco based First Republic Bank (FRCB) failed and its assets were transferred to JPMorgan Chase.
In January 2022 the company reported what appeared to be strong financial results for the last quarter of 2022 however they revealed that interest expenses had risen some 2,000% year over year and was apparently unable to survive the Federal Reserve’s 2022-23 interest hikes.
During this same time period in early 2023 Silicon Valley bank was closed by regulators after being unable to meet withdrawal requests causing shares of First Republic to drop drastically.
First Republic’s shares fell more than 60% despite an injection of $30 billion in uninsured deposits.
In May 2024 First Republic ceased to exist after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced the sale to JPMorgan Chase.
First Republic Bank San Francisco Cal Common (FRCB) was trading at $147 in early Feburary 2023. It had dropped to $13 by the end of March 2023 and to $.39 in May 2023.
First Republic Bank Preferred stock suffered a similar fate. First Republic’s preferred traded on the NYSE under these ticker symbols: FRC-PrH, FRC-PrI, FRC- PrJ, FRD-PrK, FRC-PrL, FRC-PrM and FRC-PrN.
Insider Trading of First Republic Stock
First Republic Bank executives and other insiders sold nearly $12 million at prices of about $130 a share during the months preceding the bank’s collapse. These sales, although significant were not readily apparent to the public since they were not required to be reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but only to bank regulators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
First Republic executive chairman, James Herbert, II, sold $4.5 million worth of shares in early 2023, according to filings. Robet Thornton, head of the bank’s private wealth management sold over 70% of his holdings for $3.5 million in January 2023, his first sale of the stock since 2021. Other First Republic high ranking executives made similar sales of significant proportions or their holdings just prior to the collapse.
Apparently First Republic Bank is the only company that was a part of the S&P 500 that is not required to report trades made by executives.
Did You Suffer Losses on First Republic Bank Stock?
Rex Securities Law is interested in speaking with investors who lost at least $200,000 as the result of investing in First Republic Bank common and preferred stock. We are investigating whether analysts following the stock took into consideration the degree of insider trading among First Republic Bank executives between March 2022 and early March 2023. The insider sales of First Republic Bank stock during that period were significant, and in our view, was material information about which most investors would have wanted to be aware. The duty to disclose may even have been more significant if the financial advisors monitoring the stock positions were fiduciaries. One possible reason that some analysts may have ignored this information is that the information was only available through the FDIC, and not the SEC.
If you are interested in discussing your losses, or losses suffered by your clients, please contact us.
If you have information that you believe would be helpful to our investigation, we would appreciate hearing from you.
Rex Securities Law
With offices in Boca Raton, FL and Austin, TX, stockbroker fraud attorney Rex Securities Law provides representation to investors nationwide who are seeking recovery of investment losses due to the negligence or fraud of stockbrokers, financial advisors and broker dealers. We have been assisting investors recover losses for more than 30 years and work with a network of other securities lawyers nationwide.
If you have questions about how your account has been handled, call (877) 224-3199 to speak with an experienced securities attorney at no cost to you.
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