>Presumably these loans were offloaded before the insolvency hit
No, that isnt what it is saying here. The loans weren't offloaded beforehand. First citizens obtained them as a result of the insolvency. First Citizens is claiming that they dont have to perform setoffs for some of the loans they acquired.
First citizens did perform setoffs for other unsecured customers in US branches, similar to how I described in my posts above, as required by law. Customers with accounts AND loans get their loans forgiven before the account balance goes to FDIC insured accounts. However, First Citizens thinks that due to the structure of their purchase and the SVB organization, they are not obligated to do the same for international branch customers with accounts and loans. For those, they get to hold the loan but not the setoff obligation.
Now the FDIC is in the position where they have to decide if they will claw back the loans from First Citizens and forgive them directly.