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First Republic Bank Announces Launch of Initial Public Offering of Common Stock

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^{Published in Business and Finance on Monday, November 29th 2010 at 4:06 GMT by Market Wire}  

SAN FRANCISCO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--First Republic Bank (aFirst Republica) (NYSE:FRC), a private bank and wealth management company, today announced the launch of its initial public offering of 11.0 million shares of common stock in the tentative price range of $24.00 to $27.00 per share. The shares will be offered by First Republic and certain selling shareholders. First Republic Banka™s common stock is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol aFRCa on the business day following pricing.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan will act as joint book-running managers.

First Republic Bank is a California-chartered, FDIC-insured commercial bank and trust company. As of September 30, 2010, its assets totaled $22.0 billion, its deposits were $19.0 billion, its wealth management assets totaled $17.2 billion, and loans serviced for others totaled $3.7 billion.

Together with its affiliates, First Republic specializes in providing full-service preferred banking, preferred business banking, real estate lending and wealth management services to clients through 61 offices in the following metropolitan areas: San Francisco; Palo Alto; Los Angeles; Santa Barbara; Newport Beach; San Diego; Portland; Boston; Greenwich and New York City. First Republic was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

The offering will be made only by means of an offering circular. The preliminary offering circular relating to the offering and the registration statement on Form 10 are available at[ www.frc-offering.com ]. Copies of the preliminary offering circular may also be obtained from BofA Merrill Lynch, 4 World Financial Center, New York, NY 10080, Attn: Prospectus Department or by emailing [ dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com ]; Morgan Stanley, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, New York, New York 10014, or by email at [ prospectus@morganstanley.com ]; or from J.P. Morgan, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by calling toll-free at (866) 803-9204.

A registration statement on Form 10 relating to the securities has been filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation but has not yet become effective. The securities also may not be sold, nor offers to sell be accepted, prior to the time First Republic has obtained a permit for the sale of the securities from the Commissioner of the California Department of Financial Institutions. The securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement on Form 10 becomes effective. This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. The securities are neither insured nor approved by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.