(Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase & Co will buy almost $2 billion worth of mortgages to facilitate Banc of California’s purchase of PacWest Bancorp, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
The investment bank has entered into an agreement to buy $1.8 billion of single-family residential loans at a discount, report added citing people briefed on the matter.
Banc of California and PacWest on Tuesday announced an all-stock merger with a $400 million equity raise from Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge Partners to create a bank with $36 billion in assets.
The merger marks a rare transaction in the market after several months of government-negotiated sales of failed banks. Bank mergers have also been held up for months or scrapped awaiting regulatory approval.
PacWest was among the lenders that were rocked by the collapse of three regional banks earlier this year, prompting the worst industry turmoil since the 2008 financial crisis.
(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
