Another California regional bank has fallen into its worst period since the 2008 banking crisis and is now looking for a bailout. PacWest Bank, based in California, confirmed on Thursday that it is exploring "all strategic options" after its share price halved following a Bloomberg report that it was considering a sale!

But as you may already know, these platitudes and some shuffling from place to place are signs of one thing. The bank is in trouble.

"Exploring strategic options" is Wall Street jargon for "please help". Most recently, First Republic Bank announced that it was exploring strategic options. But we all know how that turned out for her.

"In accordance with standard practice, the company and its board of directors are continually exploring strategic options," PacWest said in a statement. "Recently, the company has been approached by several potential partners and investors - negotiations are ongoing.

The company will continue to evaluate all options to maximize shareholder value, but concerns are in place. In fact, Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, said the bank is trying to find a buyer, but has been unsuccessful in doing so.

PacWest Bank $PACW is reportedly considering splitting the company or alternatively trying to raise capital to stay afloat. As with many other U.S. regional banks, the value of PacWest's loans and bonds have plunged as interest rates have risen sharply. In March, customers withdrew their deposits out of fear that the bank could fail and they would lose everything.

Although the FDIC insures accounts up to $250,000, many businesses have much more money in their accounts, much of which is not insured.

This presented a potential problem for the bank and its competitors: If customers continued to make withdrawals from their accounts, the bank could run out of cash to pay them. That has unnerved investors: shares of PacWest are down more than 87% year to date.

PacWest appeared to have stabilized in recent weeks after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in March. But PacWest announced last week that customers had stopped withdrawing money, and 73% of the bank's deposits were insured. On Thursday, it said 75% of its deposits were insured as of May 2.

"The bank has not experienced unusual deposit withdrawals following the sale of First Republic Bank and other announcements," it said in a statement. When First Republic collapsed this week, investors feared another bank could fail.

Other regional banks also fell sharply after the stock market closed Wednesday, including Western Alliance $WAL, whose shares fell nearly 39%.

PacWest hopes that reassuring news of stabilizing deposits and liquidity will help calm investors, but the market remains nervous.

"Small depositors are very nervous," said bank analyst Dick Bove. "They're worried about their savings and they're pulling them out of smaller banks to put them in big banks like JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America, which they consider safer."

But PacWest hopes it can convince everyone that their situation is stable and try to reassure nervous customers. But customers are likely to continue to worry about their deposits at smaller banks until the entire industry has weathered the crisis and shown signs of recovery.

Please note that this is not financial advice.