...пошло грязное бельё...


[finance.yahoo.com]

(Reuters) - First Republic Bank has been sued by shareholders who accused the beleaguered U.S. regional bank of concealing how rising interest rates threatened its business model by prompting an exodus of deposits.

The lawsuit filed late Monday in San Francisco federal court accused First Republic and its auditor KPMG of misrepresenting the strength of the bank's balance sheet and liquidity.

It was filed about three hours after First Republic startled investors by disclosing it had lost $102 billion, or 58%, of its deposits in the first quarter, excluding a temporary $30 billion deposit infusion from the nation's biggest banks. First Republic also said it would cut up to 25% of its workforce.

The deposit outflows were sparked by last month's collapse of SVB Financial Group's Silicon Valley Bank, which also catered to customers in start-ups and had many accounts with uninsured deposits, and Signature Bank.

Many investors saw San Francisco-based First Republic as the next bank that could fail.