PacWest's $2.6B loan sale boosts stock and regional bank rally.

PacWest Bancorp has agreed to sell a $2.6bn real estate construction loan portfolio at a discount to Kennedy-Wilson Holdings in a bid to improve its balance sheet. The deal gives the California-focused bank breathing space to cope with a flight of deposits that followed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional peers over the last two months. PacWest has lost three-quarters of its market value since the regional banking crisis started on March 8.