Cap Markets

PL Capital is raising money for a new fund that'll target banks with up to $75 billion of assets, after 20 years of sticking to just community banks with less than $3 billion of assets. In this Q&A, Richard Lashley explains why activist investors are eyeing bigger banks now and how banks can avoid his kind.

College Ave Student Loans, an online lender in Wilmington, Del., announced Thursday that it has raised $20 million in equity financing.

Randolph Bancorp in Stoughton, Mass., plans to convert from a mutual thrift to a stock-owned bank. The $386 million-asset company will hold an initial public offering as part of its conversion, it said Tuesday.

The combination of falling stock prices, higher-risk strategies and signs of worsening credit quality does not bode well for the industry's road ahead.

Banco Santander SA built up capital in the fourth quarter, easing investor concern about its ability to bolster buffers, as Spain's largest lender booked charges that wiped out profit.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., plans to raise $24 million in an offering of its preferred stock on the New York Stock Exchange.

American International Group announced $3.6 billion in new costs to fill a reserve shortfall and said it will hold an initial public offering for its mortgage insurer and sell an adviser network as Chief Executive Peter Hancock seeks to boost returns and protect his job after criticism from activist investor Carl Icahn.

Regulators and alarmists are targeting a key source of financing on which some of the best-known American companies rely.

It is too early in the Providence, R.I., bank's turnaround plan to buy another bank, CEO Bruce Van Saun says. Instead, he would rather invest in acquiring commercial, mortgage and other loan officers who can feed revenue while he tries to make the bank more efficient.

Signature Bank in New York has filed a plan to sell about $299 million in common stock.