Flagstar Bank hires six First Republic teams to expand private banking

(Reuters) - Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bancorp, said on Thursday it has hired six private client banking teams from the now-defunct First Republic Bank.

Three of the teams are based on the West Coast and three teams are based in New York City, the bank said in a statement.

Flagstar Bank also bought deposits and loans of New York-based Signature Bank from U.S. regulators after Signature was closed in March.

The recruitment from First Republic is the second major hire of its private bankers by a regional bank after it was seized by regulators and bought by JPMorgan in May.

Citizens Financial Group recently added 50 new senior private bankers and another 100 support staff in Boston, Florida, New York and San Francisco, mostly from First Republic.

Banks compete fiercely to manage the money of wealthy people with regional banks also expanding in the segment.

Wall Street giants including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have spent years investing in their business catering to high net worth clients.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by David Holmes)