Regulators close Philadelphia-based Republic First Bank, first US bank failure this year

Regulators have closed Republic First Bank, a regional lender operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it had seized the Philadelphia-based bank, which did business as Republic Bank had roughly $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of January 31. Fulton Bank NA, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to assume substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of its assets. The failure of Republic First Bank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $667 million. The lender is the first FDIC-insured institution to fail in the U.S. this year.