The First Citizens Bank has taken over much of Silicon Valley Bank, the Californian institution that came under the control of the US authorities after a bank run on its deposits, which had caused its bankruptcy.

Starting today, the 17 former SVB branches will open in the new guise of First Citizens, reads a note from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Deposit Guarantee Authority, which specifies that "depositors of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank will automatically become depositors of First Citizens Bank" and that "all deposits taken by First Citizens Bank will continue to be insured by the FDIC up to the insurance limit".

The transaction includes the purchase of about $72 billion of assets from Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, an asset of the National Association, at a discount of $16.5 billion.

The Silicon Valley Bridge Bank was created by FDIC following the closure of Silicon Valley Bank by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

As of March 10, SVB had $167 billion in assets and $119 billion in deposits.

About $90 billion in securities and other assets will remain in receivership for disposition by the FDIC.

First Citizens, headquartered in Raleigh (North Carolina), calls itself the largest family-owned U.S. bank and was founded in 1898: it has over $100 billion in total assets and operates a network of over 500 branches in 21 states and a nationwide direct bank.

The move by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) aims to calm tensions in US markets, fuelled by the biggest US banking meltdown since Lehman Brothers.

Silicon Valley Bank, the sixteenth largest U.S. bank by asset with a primary role in financing the country's start-ups since the 80s, collapsed after the sudden run on deposits, prompting US regulators to intervene.

Together with the FDIC, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve had immediately defined plans to ensure that the bank's depositors could have full access to their deposits, while the Fed also introduced a new lending tool for banks in an attempt to avoid a recurrence of similar collapses.