Kelly Holman

RBC Capital Markets, which aggressively expanded its staff over the past 12 months, has moved beyond its traditional middle-market client base and is chasing large-cap companies.

Advent International, a Boston private-equity firm founded in 1984, has shifted from its initial plan of investing in troubled banks to a focus on banks' back-office technology, specifically transaction processing businesses.

With debt financing still tough to come by, private-equity investors are teaming up with deep-pocketed corporations to find new transactions and help finance their deals.

Proposed European Union regulations have U.S. private-equity players buzzing. Most private-equity players acknowledge that if the rules to restrict the use of leverage are enacted, their own activities abroad will be crimped. They also fear that U.S. regulators may follow suit — raising a host of other concerns.

Getting through regulatory hurdles is a tough slog for many private-equity firms that want to buy or start banks, but some have found that having former banking regulators by their side can smooth the way.

A growing number of smaller banks are looking to finance transactions in a market long dominated by giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

The private equity industry unites against a new SEC measure that could ban the raising of capital from pension plans by fundraising pros.

Banks with private-equity businesses could realize a boon on rebounding capital markets and possibly have the upper hand on their peers without principal investment businesses in coming years.