Alliance Partners, the asset manager for the pioneering BancAlliance bank network, announced today that it has completed a $150 million capital raise that will support BancAlliance by delivering a broader range of commercial loans and other products to its member banks. This capital raise included current investors, such as BlackRock, John Delaney and Jason Fish, as well as a new investor, BlueMountain Capital Management LLC. BlueMountain, which made a significant investment, is a private investment company with deep credit and lending expertise and a focus on investments in leading edge financial services platforms. BlueMountain and BlackRock will support the existing management team in their efforts to expand the array of products and services available to members of the BancAlliance network, which currently has 56 member banks in 26 states.
 
"Our capital partners will help us to better serve the community banks that comprise BancAlliance," said Lee Sachs, CEO of Alliance Partners. "These important investments and resources position us well to continue building the BancAlliance network by providing our members an even broader array of high quality loans."

"We joined BancAlliance as we are anxious to increase our commercial loan portfolio in both volume and diversity," said Arthur C. Johnson, Chairman and CEO of United Bank of Michigan, member of the BancAlliance Board of Directors and a past chairman of the American Bankers Association. "We also want to have the ability to finance larger projects in our own community than our current size permits. With these new developments, BancAlliance will help us to achieve these multiple objectives."

"We are excited to be affiliated with the BancAlliance network, and support its efforts to ensure the financial success of Main Street banks serving their local communities by helping those banks work together to access high quality loans," said Andrew Feldstein, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of BlueMountain.

BancAlliance is a consortium of leading community and regional banks organized to evaluate and fund corporate commercial and industrial (C&I) loans and related services designed to improve the safety, profitability, and competiveness of community banks. The BancAlliance platform allows members to access high quality loans, deploy excess liquidity, and increase profitability. BancAlliance's governance and credit management standards promote prudent diversification in a manner consistent with the highest regulatory standards - without changing the nature or mission of the community bank.

BancAlliance was founded by John Delaney, a financial services entrepreneur who founded and led two successful NYSE listed financial services firms and Lee Sachs, former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in December 2010. Member institutions represent many of the nation's strongest banks, and range in size from $100 million to $10 billion in assets. The collective lending capacity of the membership makes BancAlliance equivalent to one of the 50 largest banks in the country.