Banking executives sold millions in stock before crash: WSJ

Executives at First Republic Bank sold company’s stock worth millions of dollars in the months before this week’s crash, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The banking executives sold $11.8 million worth of stock in the company over the last two months, with First Republic Executive Chairman James Herbert II selling $4.5 million worth of his shares since the start of 2023, per the Journal.

Combined, First Republic’s chief credit officer, president of private wealth management and chief executive sold $7 million worth of company stock.

First Republic’s insider sales appear to have gone largely unnoticed, as it is now the only S&P 500 company that reports such sales to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) instead of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Signature Bank, which collapsed on Sunday, was also exempted from filing with the SEC.

First Republic Bank’s stock plummeted more than 50 percent this week, as panic ensued over the widely-reported failures of other regional banks, including Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.

Amid concerns of a potential run on First Republic, some of the largest U.S. banks — including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — agreed to help stabilize the bank’s balance sheets on Thursday with $30 billion in deposits.