Commonwealth Bank is making no promises about matching its second half dividend in six months time (after managing to maintain the first half dividend at $1.13) but the bank is still looking to sell new shares to retail investors under a share purchase plan.At least the shares may be in the money. Retail investors are eligible to buy up to $10,000 worth of new shares at a maximum of $26, the same price at which CBA sold $2 billion in shares to institutions in December (and in which Merrill Lynch or CBA messed up their advice over a profit downgrade, a fracas which may yet embarrass one or the other with regulators).Since CBA's shares closed yesterday at $29.92 and, for now at least, world equity markets are taking a less pessimistic view of the worldwide recession than they were, the bank's management appears optimistic about raising plenty of cash: "quite a bit" was the estimate of the CEO, Ralph Norris. The bank did not stipulate a target or maximum.The caveat is that the bank's dividend payout ratio increased to 84 per cent this half, on a cash basis, up from 63 per cent a year ago, and the prospect of matching the 2008 second half dividend of $1.53 seems unlikely.