Three years after it acquired Silicon Valley Bridge Bank out of federal receivership, First Citizens BancShares is looking for its next acquisition, The Business Journals reports.

The Raleigh, North Carolina-based bank has told investors and analysts it is actively evaluating new deal opportunities. The announcement marks the first time since the 2023 transaction that First Citizens has publicly signaled a return to the acquisition trail.

What happened in 2023?

First Citizens stepped in when regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 and placed its banking operations into receivership under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. First Citizens bought the failed lender's deposits and loans, in a transaction that transformed the scale of the North Carolina institution overnight.

That deal made First Citizens one of the most prominent regional banks in the United States. It also handed the bank a large new client base in the technology and innovation economy that Silicon Valley Bank had served.

Why is First Citizens hunting again?

According to The Business Journals, bank leadership now sees room for further consolidation. The regional banking sector has continued to shrink through mergers since 2023, and First Citizens has signaled it wants to participate as a buyer rather than a target.

The report does not specify which institutions or markets First Citizens is considering. It also does not state a timeline for a transaction.

What is clear is the strategic posture: a bank that proved it could digest a large, troubled acquisition is now positioning itself to do a deal from a position of strength.

What does this mean for the market?

The signal from First Citizens matters for three reasons:

• Consolidation pressure. Regional banks across the United States face rising compliance and technology costs. Larger institutions with strong balance sheets are widely expected to keep absorbing smaller rivals.
• First Citizens' track record. The SVB transaction demonstrated that First Citizens can integrate a major acquisition quickly and retain a substantial share of the acquired business.
• Investor attention. Any statement of acquisition intent from a bank of First Citizens' size immediately draws speculation about potential targets across the regional banking sector.

The Business Journals' report frames the bank's intentions as active deal-hunting rather than passive openness to opportunities. Leadership, in other words, is in the market.

What remains unknown?

Several questions are still open:

• No target institution has been named.
• No transaction value or structure has been disclosed.
• No timeline for a deal has been announced.

First Citizens has not said whether it is focused on whole-bank acquisitions, branch purchases, or acquisitions of specific loan portfolios, as it did when it bought substantial assets from CIT Group in 2022 before the SVB transaction.

The bottom line

Three years after the deal that reshaped it, First Citizens is back in the acquisition market. The bank that bought Silicon Valley Bridge Bank from the FDIC in 2023 is now searching for its next transaction, and the regional banking sector will be watching closely to see where it strikes.