"With the leveraged-buyout business on life support,
major private-equity firms such as the Carlyle Group are taking a closer look at the battered banking sector as a way to make money for their clients.
Carlyle has more than $30 billion in client money sitting on the sidelines, waiting to be invested. Major private-equity players such as Wilbur Ross, Donald Marron of Lightyear Capital, and the Blackstone Group are also piling into the financial sector with their deep pockets.
"It's where fortune$ are going to be made over the next two or three years," said Gary Townsend, who manages a Chevy Chase hedge fund that concentrates in the financial sector.
One thing investors like:
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s willingness to share losses if some institutions fail to recover."
