First Republic worked hard to woo rich clients. It was the bank's undoing

By Noah Buhayar, Jennifer Surane, Max Reyes and Ann Choi In America’s richest enclaves, word spread quickly: A bank was offering loans on sweet terms.Wealthy homebuyers and property investors with high incomes and sterling credit scores could get a mortgage from First Republic Bank with a rock-bottom rate for several years. Better yet, they didn’t have to start repaying the principal for a decade. Across Manhattan, the San Francisco Bay area and Southern California, those terms attracted legions of wealthy clients &nd...