PACW Falls over 50 after reports of a potential sale, bringing banks stocks down

acWest Bancorp  shares dove more than 50% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after a report that the company’s executives are looking at a possible sale. The regional bank’s shares have been diving this week after the collapse and sale of another regional bank in the western U.S., First Republic Bank, which was sold to JP Morgan Chase & Co.  Monday in a deal that netted shareholders nothing. Bloomberg News reported Wednesday afternoon that PacWest’s leaders were considering strategic alternatives of their own, which could include a sale, based on anonymous sources. Bloomberg reported that the bank has not found much interest in an acquisition of the entire company, and could look to break it apart or just raise fresh capital. PacWest is based in California, like two of the other large regional banks to collapse this year, First Republic and Silicon Valley Bank, though PacWest is based in Southern California while the other two are in the San Francisco Bay Area. The sudden decline in Wednesday’s extended session wrapped in other banks’ stocks, including Western Alliance Bancorp  and Zions Bancorp NA .