PacWest has agreed to sell a $3.54 billion portfolio of lender finance loans to asset manager Ares Management Corp., the bank said Monday in a filing.

“This transaction will improve our liquidity and capital as we continue to implement our announced strategy to return our focus to relationship-based community banking," PacWest CEO Paul Taylor said in a statement Monday.

Beverly Hills, California-based PacWest has been one of the highest-profile targets of a slump in confidence investors have felt toward regional lenders in general since March. 

Monday’s sale is not the first step the bank has taken to bolster liquidity. PacWest agreed last month to sell a roughly $2.6 billion portfolio of construction loans to real estate investment firm Kennedy-Wilson. Then it offloaded Civic Financial Services, its property lending division, to real estate loan originator Roc360 the next day.

PacWest received $2.01 billion from the sale of the Ares transaction’s first tranche, which closed Thursday, according to the filing.

Ares said its alternative credit arm bought PacWest’s loans with financing from Barclays.

“Our long-standing relationship with PacWest and our team’s ability to underwrite across numerous asset classes and efficiently complete the transaction positioned Ares to be the partner of choice,” Jeffrey Kramer, portfolio manager for alternative credit at Ares, said in a statement.

Ares acquired an aggregate outstanding principal balance of $2.07 billion and assumed $187.14 million of the $1.33 billion unfunded commitment in the portfolio, PacWest said.

“Our scale, coupled with one of the more flexible mandates in the private credit market today, makes Ares Alternative Credit an ideal partner to the banking community as they optimize their balance sheets and strengthen their financial position,” Joel Holsinger, Ares’ co-head of alternative credit, said Monday.