The former chief executive of the First Republic Bank Michael Roffler blamed contagion spread from the failures of regional banks for the bank's collapse and said regulators did not express concerns regarding the bank's strategy, liquidity, or management performance.

A total of over $100 billion in deposits were withdrawn from the bank over the course of weeks in response to industry-wide panic about the soundness of regional banks, Roffler said in his testimony to Senate Banking Committee.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)