A quick rise in interest rates, a large amount of uninsured deposits and a first-quarter update that revealed further weaknesses in its business all contributed to the demise of First Republic Bank, now the second-largest bank blowup since Washington Mutual.
As of Dec. 31, First Republic FRC was ranked as the 14th largest bank in the U.S. by the Federal Reserve with consolidated assets of nearly $213 billion. Washington Mutual had $307 billion of assets as the largest bank failure in U.S. history during the global financial…