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Back of Napkin

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. FCNCA

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First Citizens earned less before provisions in the first half of 2026 than it did in the first half of 2025, and reported earnings per share 27.7% higher.

A $207.0M swing in credit provisions and a share count down 13% supplied all of the difference, and both levers have an expiry date you can read in the filings.

Key data

Sector / industryFinancials / Regional banks
FYE / countryDec / US
Price · 52w range$2,137.26 · $1,623.76–$2,296.30
Market cap$24.3B
Filing anchorQ2 FY2026 (CQ2 2026), filed Aug 7, 2026; reports next late Oct
Tangible book / share$1,722.35 at Jun 30, up 8.0% in a year
Forward P/EFY26E 11.0x · FY27E 10.7x
ROTCE · NIM12.9% in Q2 · 3.10%, of which 9bp is purchase accounting
CET1 · reserve / loans10.77% · 0.98%

FCNCA · price with moving averages

Daily · 6MWeekly · 3Y
$1033$1388$1742$2096$2451 Sep '23Apr '24Nov '24Jun '25Jan '26Sep '26 BID
EMAs82140

Source: market data.

The business

First Citizens is a Raleigh bank the Holding family has run for three generations and still controls, and a serial buyer of failed institutions since 2009. Two deals changed its shape: CIT in January 2022, and Silicon Valley Bridge Bank from the FDIC fourteen months later. The General Bank lends $64.4B through Southeast branches; the Commercial Bank lends $86.6B and holds what those deals brought, including equipment finance and the old Silicon Valley franchise.

The largest loan class here is not a mortgage book. It is $34.2B of capital call lines, loans to private equity and venture funds secured by the unfunded commitments their investors have already signed. Losses on that paper are close to nothing, because the collateral is a promise from a pension fund rather than a building. It grew 31% in a year. That niche, and a deposit base that never ran, is the moat.

Inside the complete Back of Napkin

  1. 01The business
  2. 02The numbers
  3. 03Management
  4. 04How it fails or surprises you
  5. 05The shape of the payoff
  6. 06Closing thoughts
  7. 07Methodology

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