Every financial crisis breeds its own solutions.

In the case of Pacific Capital Bancorp, the region’s largest financial institution, that solution is something called a “recapitalization.” As befits the era of the hybrid, the proposed $500 million cash injection by Dallas-based Ford Financial Group is part sale and part workout, all done with a wink and a nod from regulators who must yet approve it. Maybe this one should be called the Ford in-fusion.

By any name, the second largest transaction in the region’s banking history provides a way out for a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that’s exhausted its coffers taking over and liquidating failed banks.

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