Before last week, relatively few people outside of finance likely were aware of First Citizens Bancshares. But on Monday, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based lender emerged as the buyer of billions of dollars of Silicon Valley Bank’s assets.

At first glance, the combination with a California lender looks strange, given that more than half of First Citizens’ (ticker: FCNCA) 582 branches are concentrated in North and South Carolina. But the brand spans 22 states, and First Citizens is a frequent buyer of other lenders.

It has completed more than 50 acquisitions since 1990, according to Christopher Marianac, director of research at Janney Montgomery Scott. Including the Silicon Valley deal, 23 of those went through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

“The company has a very good record with the FDIC and an approach that the regulatory agency likes a great deal,” Marianac told Barron’s.

That familiarity with regulators likely mattered a great deal in the case of Silicon Valley Bank. Although it was well known that SVB had a highly concentrated deposit base of venture capitalists and start-up founders, and although regulators knew the bank was sitting on unrealized losses in its bond portfolio due to the Fed rapidly raising rates over the past year, the collapse was surprisingly rapid.

An effort by management to strengthen the balance sheet triggered a crisis of confidence. A significant portion of its depositors withdrew their money at once, turning what was a liquidity problem earlier in the week into a solvency crisis—and failure—by Friday, March 10.

The FDIC typically likes to find a buyer for a failed bank over a weekend. But the quickness of SVB’s collapse meant it didn’t have ample time to market the firm.

In any case, few banks appear to have been willing or able to step up to the plate. They had to manage their own businesses in what was looking like a banking crisis.

Large banks such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) may have been financially equipped to do an acquisition, but face constraints on the percentage of U.S. deposits they may hold. Smaller banks don’t face such limits but they may not have the expertise to handle Silicon Valley Bank’s unique client base of venture capitalists and start-up founders.

Private-equity shops such as Apollo Global Management (APO) and Blackstone (BX) were looking at Silicon Valley Bank’s loan book, but without a bank charter wouldn’t be able to buy a bank outright.

That left First Citizens. It is familiar with the FDIC process and it had the capacity for another acquisition after completing a merger with CIT Group, a commercial lending and equipment leasing business, early last year.

“There’s always a little luck involved, if this had been a year ago, First Citizens would have been up in arms trying to integrate CIT,” Marianac said.

First Citizens didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. “First Citizens has a proud history of growing organically and through strategic acquisitions that build our core capabilities in a careful and deliberate manner,” said Frank Holding, chairman and chief executive at First Citizens, in a news release announcing the deal.

So far, First Citizens is benefiting. Its stock was up about 55% in afternoon trading Monday.

“First Citizens only bought the stuff they wanted,” Chris Whalen, chairman of Whalen Global Advisors, told Barron’s, referring to the $56 billion in deposits and $72 billion of loans it acquired at a $16.5 billion discount. About $90 billion of SVB’s securities and other assets remain in receivership, the FDIC said.

“It’s a great transaction for First Citizens,” Whalen said.