The market for asset-backed secu- rities remains frozen, IPO and M&A activity is in the doldrums, and deleveraging is putting a squeeze on proprietary trading. What’s a poor investment bank to do to gin up business? Try for a piece of the hottest action on the Street — rais-ing money for other banks. Financial institutions are scrambling to rebuild capital after having taken more than $100 billion in write-downs as a result of the credit crisis. Banks have raised $86.6 billion in equity over the past 13 months, up 66 percent from a year earlier, according to data provider Dealogic. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, which have avoided costly write-downs and the need to raise cash, dominate this growing field, but other banks have effectively generated their own business. Third-ranked Citigroup worked on a dozen deals, including its own $3.2 billion convertible preferred offering.
