Julie Schneider has joined First Republic Bank, as a senior commercial lender in the firm’s Palo Alto, Calif. office. She had spent the past 17 years with Silicon Valley Bank, most recently as a director of private equity services.

Mike Franks has joined First Republic Bank as a managing director in the firm’s Silicon Valley office. He previously was with Silicon Valley Bank as a managing director and direct or private equity services.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The drawn-out sale of Bank of America’s (BAC.N) $1 billion wealth management business ultimately came down to how much protection against any unforeseen losses bidders demanded, rather than price. The fact that asset quality was a key issue in the First Republic auction shows just how concerned many investors still are [...]

WSJ blogger Scott Austin is reporting that Sequoia Capital is a small part of the consortium that has agreed to buy private bank First Republic from Bank of America, for more than $1 billion. Don’t quite know what to say, except that it’s a bit unexpected. Not only because Sequoia doesn’t typically involve itself with buyout deals (save for the Aricent deal with KKR), but because it also isn’t known as much of a financial sector investor.

I’m sure Sequoia is aware that the VC world’s track record with big buyout clubs is mixed (to be kind). The most egregious examples are Battery Ventures with Freescale Semiconductor and Highland Capital Partners with Harrah’s. More recently we had

CHARLOTTE (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) agreed to sell First Republic private bank to a group of private equity investors. A consortium of private equity firms, including General Atlantic Partners and Colony Capital, are part of the deal, with First Republic Chairman and Chief Executive James Herbert part of the winning bid, the [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Carlyle Group CYL.UL and Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) are leading an investor group that is bidding to acquire First Republic Bank, a private banking unit of Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Bloomberg News said on Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the matter. The private equity firms may partner with First [...]