To comply with the US regulators directive to infuse additional equity following the stress test for banks, Wells Fargo, the biggest US mortgage originator and the fourth-largest US bank by assets, says raised $8.6 billion through sale of 392 million shares of common stock, and Morgan Stanley raised $8 billion by selling shares and debt.

Following a three-month stress test, US regulators on Thursday directed the nation's 10 largest banks to raise a combined $74.6 billion to shore up their capital. The banks have six months to fill their capital shortfalls. (See: US banks told to raise $75 billion in capital by November).

If they can't raise the money on their own, the government said it is prepared to infuse more taxpayers' money to bail them out.

Howard Atkins chief financial officer of Wells Fargo said, its common stock offering was heavily oversubscribed, reflecting confidence on the part of both institutional and retail investors in Wells Fargo's business model and financial strength.

Wells Fargo has now to raise additional $5.1 billion, the government said. The San Francisco- based lender is estimated to face losses for 2009 and 2010 of $86.1 billion. Its shares have declined 16 per cent this year amid mounting home-loan losses.

Wells Fargo is The largest bank on the US West Coast and the second largst US mortgae originator and sevicer. In October 2008, it grabbed Wachovia in a friendly $15.1-billion deal, edging out Citibank that had anounced four days earlier that it would buy some businesses of the North Carolina-based Wachovia in a government-backed rescue (See: Wells Fargo edges Citi to grab Wachovia for $15.1 billion)

Now, Citigroup itself needs $5.5 billion and Bank of America (BoA), the largest US bank, $33.9 billion, according to the government. Citigroup's losses may total $104.7 billion through 2010 in an ''adverse'' economic environment, the Federal Reserve said.

BoA plans to sell as many as 1.25 billion shares of common stock in a shelf registration. It could have losses this year and next of $136.6 billion. The bank's shares have dropped 74 per cent in the past two years, and have surged 26 per cent since early March.

''We are comfortable with our current capital position in the present economic environment,'' BoA chief executive Ken Lewis told reporters yesterday on a conference call. ''The stress test asks what if the economy does much worse than most experts project.''

"We do not need new government money, and we do not intend to convert the existing TARP money we have," Lewis said in a conference call with investors Tuesday. "In fact, our game plan is designed to help get the government out of our bank as quickly as possible."

There were earlier reports that BoA is planning to sell its stake in China Construction Bank to raise capital.

Others in the list such as Region's Financial Corp, KeyCorp, Fifth Third Bancorp, PNC and GMAC LLC all told by the government to raise capital, said they would consider selling stock or converting preferred shares to meet government guidelines.

Meanwhile, banks that came out clean after the test, such as American Express are planning to repay $3.4 billion received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Others such as JP Morgan, BB&T Corp, have also expressed their willingness to repay the taxpayers money as soon as possible.

Wells Fargo closed Friday's regular trading on New York Stock Exchange at $28.18, up $3.42 or 13.81 per cent, on a volume of 477.64 million shares.

The test was designed to measure the banks' ability to withstand an economic downturn. The tests measured bank reserves based on what's known as common equity, the value of a company's common stock and profits.