Pacific Western Bank faced ‘elevated’ withdrawals after bank failures

(Reuters) – Pacific Western Bank, a unit of PacWest Bankcorp, said on Friday it had witnessed ‘elevated’ withdrawals following the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (NASDAQ:), but deposit movements had stabilized since Monday.

The Los Angeles-based bank gave no details on the sum of the withdrawals but said they were mainly from its venture banking business line.

In a statement, Pacific Western Bank said it still maintained solid liquidity, with available cash exceeding $10.8 billion as of Friday.

The statement late on Friday came after PacWest’s shares had slumped 19%, ending the week that was dominated by an unfolding crisis in the banking sector.

“Since Monday, March 13, 2023, net outflows have fallen sharply, with deposit balance fluctuations substantially stabilizing,” it said in a statement.

Pacific Western Bank said that as of March 16, insured deposits accounted for over 62% of total deposits, while insured venture-specific deposits made up more than 77% of total venture deposits.

The bank also said it had a diversified deposit base with venture deposits comprising approximately 25% of total deposits.

Pacific Western Bank’s announcement came after Reuters reported on Thursday that PacWest was in talks about a liquidity boost with Atlas (NYSE:) SP Partners and other investment firms.