Capital Raises Get Post-Election Boost

There's a window of opportunity for bringing in offensive (or defensive) capital. We also look at the pros and cons of banks inking sports sponsorship deals.

Good morning, Bank Slaters!

Here we are — staring down the end of 2024. We have a lot of great content to finish off the year. We have one more podcast set for next week with Era Jain, the co-founder of AI startup Zeplyn (which just raised $3 million). We will also look at our 2024 bankers to watch in the coming weeks and share our projections on which bankers will make news in the new year.

We’re sending this newsletter out from the Banking Transformation Summit in Charlotte, N.C., where we’re ready to hear presentations on digital transformation, AI and other ways that financial companies can innovate in the years ahead.

We’ve also been getting positive feedback on our research report on 2025 budgeting trends. As a premium subscriber, you should have a copy. Let us know at info@thebankslate.com if you didn’t see it in your inbox.

Let’s talk about the latest round of capital raises.

We’ve been saying for some time that more banks will turn to the equity markets for capital as we move through the backend of the fourth quarter. The post-election rally for bank stocks — the KBW Nasdaq index is up nearly 12% since the close before the election — is providing a reason to determine that now is the time to sell stock.

The last time the BKX was at or near 135 was in February 2022.