During the aftermarket, the managing investment bank tries to prevent any significant declines in the price of the issuer’s shares; hence, this function by investment banks is sometimes also called market stabilization. Investment banks do not want to be known for bringing firms public at excessive offering prices, nor do they want to be known for handling IPOs of poor-quality issuers. To help show the market that the bank will stand behind its IPOs, it risks its own money to support the firm by repurchasing any and all shares offered to it at the offering price. This effectively places a floor under the firm’s stock price. The investment bank acts as a signal to market investors. When a highly reputable investment bank places its own capital at risk to underwrite securities, the investing public can have a greater degree of confidence regarding the quality of the issue. If an investment bank is willing to sell shares on a commission basis only, that is a signal of a low-quality, high-risk offering.