First Citizens Retires the Silicon Valley Bank Name on Its Tech and Healthcare Division
The bank has rebranded the unit it built from its 2023 acquisition of SVB's assets as First Citizens Innovation Banking, folding another legacy brand into its own name three years after the deal.
RALEIGH, N.C. — First Citizens Bank has renamed its technology and healthcare banking division First Citizens Innovation Banking, retiring the Silicon Valley Bank name the unit had carried since First Citizens acquired SVB's assets out of FDIC receivership in March 2023, following the bank's collapse earlier that month.
The division has continued to serve the same niche since the acquisition — specialized banking, lending and treasury services for startups, venture investors and growth-stage companies in technology, life science and healthcare — a client base and specialty SVB had built over four decades before its failure triggered the broader regional banking stress of 2023.
First Citizens has characterized the change as part of a wider effort to consolidate its various commercial brands under the First Citizens name rather than operating legacy acquired brands separately. The bank has made similar moves with other units absorbed through its acquisition history, which includes CIT Group in 2022 in addition to the SVB asset purchase.
The rebrand closes out one of the more visible remaining traces of the SVB name in First Citizens' operations, more than three years after a deal that was, at the time, one of the largest bank failure resolutions since 2008. Whether the division retains SVB's reputation and relationships within the venture and startup banking community under its new name is the open question the rebrand itself does not answer.