USA - US regulators are racing to find a rescuer to buy First Republic Bank in a deal that could be announced as soon as Sunday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has reportedly asked six banks to bid for the embattled lender. Shares in First Republic plunged last week after it admitted customers had withdrawn $100 billion in deposits in March. At that time, its competitor Silicon Valley Bank had collapsed, prompting fears of a wider banking crisis.
SVB's failure was swiftly followed by the demise of another US lender, Signature Bank. According to reports, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a US financial regulator, sought bids for First Republic by the end of last week and has been assessing them over the weekend.
Investment banking giant JP Morgan Chase is believed to be one of the banks invited to bid for First Republic, according to news agency Reuters. Bank of America is also understood to have been approached.
Concerns about the global banking industry gathered pace last month as problems at Silicon Valley Bank emerged. Central banks around the world have been sharply raising interest rates over the past year to dampen the rate of price rises, otherwise known as inflation. It has hurt the values of the large portfolios of bonds bought by banks when rates were lower, raising concerns that other firms faced similar situations.
At the same time in Europe, Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse - which had been engulfed in its own problems for a number of years - said it would have to borrow $54 billion from the country's central bank to shore up its finances. Credit Suisse has since been rescued by long-time rival UBS.
People are asking: Is this the start of another financial crisis?
Nervousness around the health of banks is often contagious and if people start to worry about their deposits they can move them at the click of a mouse. Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Credit Suisse and now First Republic Bank... all crashed! if it looks like a crisis, then maybe it is!
Watch carefully! And remember – we were warned!
7 July 1984 - Mr Armstrong warned:
"...I can see now the event that is going to trigger the formation of reunification in Europe; the resurrection of the Medieval Holy Roman Empire that we’ve been looking forward to that is prophesied to come.
...I believe that some event is going to happen suddenly just like out of a blue sky that is going to shock the whole world and is going to cause the nations of Europe to realize they must unite.
Well, now I think I can see what may be the very event that is going to trigger it and that is THE ECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE WORLD.
NOW WHEN THE FINANCIAL STRUCTURE BREAKS DOWN, ALL CIVILIZATION IS GOING TO BREAK DOWN. I just wanted to say that much - maybe you can begin to see how serious this thing can become!”(Sermon - Prophecy Part One - 7 July 1984)
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
Read online or contact email to request a copy
