Private equity group Apollo Management will establish a new bank under an obscure provision buried in the US financial regulations signed into law last week.

Apollo is to take advantage of a change that allows banks to operate in multiple US states without a national charter, lawyers say.

The company, which has about $55bn under management, has hired a team from Countrywide Financial to run the bank, and is awaiting regulatory approval. Apollo plans to get round ownership restrictions which can force a private equity group to be considered a bank holding company by asking its investors to put money alongside it in the new bank, to be called Ares. The bank will have a separate board and operate independently of Apollo. However, it is not currently clear how ambitious Apollo's plans for the bank will prove, people familiar with the matter say.