With the leveraged-buyout business on life support, major private-equity firms such as the Carlyle Group are taking a closer look at the battered banking sector as a way to make money for their clients.

Last September, Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle invested $75 million in Boston Private Financial Holdings. Last month, it was part of a group that injected $900 million into Florida's BankUnited. Carlyle was part of a group looking to buy Atlanta, Georgia-based Silverton Bank earlier this month, until regulators decided to liquidate the institution instead.

Private-equity firms have long eyed the financial services industry, but the sector took a back seat over the past two decades as private equity pursued fat returns fueled by leveraged-buyout deals. Until recently, those buyouts helped Carlyle generate an annual net return of 26 percent across the firm.

The capital crisis that began in 2007 killed the buyout boom, forcing private-equity firms to look for other investment opportunities. At the same time, the crisis has forced many banks to look to the government - and to private equity - for cash.

"This economic dislocation is probably the single greatest one we have seen since the Great Depression," said Olivier Sarkozy, head of the Carlyle team looking at bank deals and half-brother of the president of France. "That, in turn, has created a supply-and-demand imbalance that we are looking to take advantage of, namely a large amount of demand for capital with limited places to turn other than private-equity houses."