The hotel, retail and multifamily residential sectors are all showing signs of recovery, which is helping the regional bank. But company executives acknowledged that the firm's relatively large exposure to the office segment figures to pose challenges for some time.

The San Francisco bank identified "signs of weakness" and increased its loan loss reserves substantially. Small and midsize banks have significantly larger exposures than Wells does to the office segment, which has been hit by changing work habits.

The Pittsburgh bank grew its deposits in the first quarter, even as the failure of two other regionals sparked outflows across the industry. But PNC executives warned Friday that rising funding costs could continue to eat into its net interest margin.

Regulators had their priorities backward when it came to overseeing SVB and allowed an obvious danger to go unmitigated.

Revenue from fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading unexpectedly rose 4% to $4.5 billion in the first quarter, as clients reacted to changing interest rates, the company says. Net income rose 7% to $4.6 billion.

The lender had $2.38 trillion of deposits at the end of March, compared with $2.34 trillion three months earlier. The influx more than offset drains from inflation and customers' seeking higher-yielding alternatives.

The firm reported $13.3 billion in NII in the first three months of the year, up 45% from a year earlier and more than the 42% jump analysts expected. That gain helped counter a surge in provisions for souring loans.