FDIC Director Says Agency’s Failed-Bank Auctions Could Do Better

After the FDIC brokered the sale of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank to First Citizens BancShares Inc.— driving up the buyer’s stock price and saddling the regulator with a $20 billion bill — it got a notable critic: one of its own board members.

Jonathan McKernan, a Republican who joined the agency in January, expressed concern regarding the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s auction process. The regulator should do more to get the best price when it auctions failed lenders, he said.

“If we leave value on the table, that increases the loss to the FDIC’s deposit-insurance fund, which then ...