Carver raises $55 million from Goldman, Morgan Stanley, others

(Reuters) - Carver Bancorp Inc <CARV.O> raised $55 million in new equity capital from institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs <GS.N>, Morgan Stanley <MS.N>, Citigroup Inc <C.N> and American Express <AXP.N>, helping boost the bank's capital levels to meet regulatory requirements.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley invested $15 million each in Carver, while Citigoup and the Prudential Insurance Company invested $10 million each.

Credit card company American Express and First Republic Bank <FRC.N> also invested $2 million each. The National Community Investment Fund made a $1 million investment.

Carver, which was founded in 1948 to serve the African-American community, also said the U.S. Treasury agreed to exchange the $19 million in preferred shares it received from the bank under the Troubled Asset Relief Program for about 34.8 million shares of common stock.

The Treasury does not hold any warrants to buy Carver stock.

Shares of the New York-based bank closed at $0.55 on Wednesday on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Jochelle Mendonca in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)