First Citizens to drop SVB name, 3 years after crisis

Most people know that Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023, touching off a regional banking crisis. Fewer people know that until this week, a website bearing SVB’s name was still proclaiming, “We are open for business.”

Processing Content

That’s because for three years, SVB has operated as a division of First Citizens Bancshares, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based lender that acquired big parts of the failed bank in March 2023. Since then, the First Citizens unit has kept using SVB’s brand name and logo — until now.

On Thursday, the $229.7 billion-asset First Citizens announced that it is retiring the name “Silicon Valley Bank.” Starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, each department bearing the SVB name — including divisions serving the tech, health care, wine and other industries — will be rebranded to “First Citizens.”

“The experience we offer will stay the same,” Frank Holding Jr., CEO of First Citizens, said in a statement. “Only the names will change, and we continue to invest in our capabilities to make the experience for our clients even better.”

The rebranding marks a sharp turnaround in strategy. For the last three years, First Citizens used the SVB brand to heavily emphasize its continuity of service. In May 2023, just two months after the California bank collapsed, a livestreamed video hosted by SVB bankers repeatedly asserted that little had changed.

“We are still here. We are still the same team,” Bo Ren, who at the time was director of startup banking at SVB, said in the video. “We have the same products. We have the same mission, the same values.”

As recently as last fall, First Citizens was still underscoring that continuity.

“First Citizens’ Silicon Valley Bank division has had a presence in Northern California for more than 40 years,” the bank said in a November 2025 press release.

Why, then, is First Citizens dropping the SVB banner now? According to Peter Bristow, president of First Citizens’ commercial bank, it’s a matter of making the brand as united as the company.

“This is about aligning our brand strategy with our business strategy,” Bristow told American Banker in an email. “We are poised for growth, and looking ahead, a united brand strategy and product platform across our commercial bank will help us deliver more access to a broader solution set in time.”

First Citizens’ initial decision to keep the SVB name had few recent analogues. After First Republic Bank failed in May 2023, and its remains were sold to JPMorganChase, its branches were quickly renamed. The same was true for banks such as IndyMac and Washington Mutual, which went belly-up during the global financial crisis. Under new ownership, both companies ditched their old names.

And yet, in SVB’s case, multiple groups have been fighting over the tarnished brand name. SVB Financial Trust, the entity responsible for liquidating the now-bankrupt parent company SVB Financial Group, filed a lawsuit against First Citizens last year, accusing the company of using SVB’s trademarks without permission.

“First Citizens Bank’s false designation of the origin of its products is likely to have caused and to continue causing confusion in the marketplace, and it misrepresents the characteristics of First Citizens Bank’s products and services,” lawyers for SVB Financial Trust wrote in their complaint.

The lawsuit is still pending. First Citizens told American Banker its branding decision had nothing to do with the litigation, which it would not comment on. 

Before it collapsed, Silicon Valley Bank specialized in commercial lending to tech startups and the private equity firms that backed them. Back in 2023, First Citizens had made less of a name for itself in the tech industry, and the SVB brand may have had value as the bank worked to hold onto clients.

On Thursday, First Citizens said the “innovation economy” will continue to receive the same quality of service, even as its name changes from SVB to First Citizens.

“First Citizens has seen the value in preserving what has always made us special and a leader in serving the innovation economy,” Marc Cadieux, president of Silicon Valley Bank under First Citizens, said in a statement. “This upcoming milestone reflects First Citizens’ ongoing commitment to our audiences and a desire to build upon that success.”

In the past, SVB bankers have touted their relative independence from the rest of First Citizens. When asked whether this independence would continue, First Citizens did not answer.

One thing that does not appear to be changing is how First Citizens talks about what used to be known as SVB. Even as the Silicon Valley brand disappears into that of its parent company, executives at the North Carolina bank continued to stress the theme of continuity.

“All capabilities from the SVB division are staying the same,” Bristow said. “This is a name change, not a change in our go-to market approach, organizational structure, client service model or solution set.”