Hundreds of Silicon Valley Bank veterans have been cut from the roster at First Citizens Bank, which acquired SVB two months ago following the bank’s collapse in early March.

Triangle Business News reported Wednesday that First Citizens CEO Frank Holding Jr. informed employees of cuts through a company-wide email Wednesday, calling the cuts “difficult but necessary actions to ensure that our workforce and costs are appropriate for a bank our size.”

First Citizens spokesperson Barbara Thompson did not return Banking Dive’s request for comment but confirmed the layoffs of “less than 500” to TBN, noting that they affect “select SVB corporate functions, not client-facing positions.”

“Given the challenges faced by SVB earlier this year, we had to make the decision to right-size our scope and scale to remain competitive and ensure we have the strongest foundation in place to drive sustainable growth,” she said.

Axios reported that the cuts affected mostly the commercial banking business brought over from SVB, and that they amount to approximately 3% of First Citizen’s total workforce.

In his email to employees, Holding called the affected employees’ transition after their departure “our top priority.” Each of them were invited to one-on-ones with human resources and their managers Wednesday, he said.

Thompson also told TBN that those affected would be offered transition services, as well as severance.

This week, First Citizens sued British lender HSBC, claiming it had poached more than 40 bankers from SVB to gain access to SVB’s confidential, proprietary and trade secret information about tech and healthcare clients.

First Citizens named David Sabow, SVB’s former head of tech and healthcare banking in North America, as the “chief architect” of a scheme meant to bring the “core of SVB’s profitability engine” with him to HSBC, Bloomberg reported.

First Citizens is seeking more than $1 billion in the suit.