TARP opens its doors to small banks
Posted on October 22, 2009 at 7:11 amBut small banks aren’t rushing to line up for President Obama’s proposed expansion of the SBA’s main lending program. And in moves reminiscent of the ongoing health reform debate, other proposals already are making the rounds.
“There are different ways to skin this cat,” said the Senator, who suggested the creation of a $50 billion loan pool that would combine TARP funds, Federal Reserve loans and bank contributions that lenders could use to service small businesses. That idea has gained the support of about 30 other senators.
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Another banking bailout coming?
Posted on September 28, 2009 at 6:39 amThis time, smaller banks who were deemed too weak to get TARP cash — remember how that program was first pitched as ‘good money for good banks’ — may be given government capital. One potentially critical catch: They may have to raise private money to match the federal funds.
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BofA looks to wriggle free of the government
Posted on September 22, 2009 at 8:02 am
Bank of America said Monday it has exited several government assistance programs and will pay back $425 million it received as a backstop against Merrill Lynch losses.
“We are a stronger company than we were even a few months ago,” Mr. Lewis, the chief executive, said in a statement. “We believe we have all the pieces in place to emerge from this current economic crisis as one of the leading financial services firms in the world.”
Next up: a partial TARP payback, some legal dancing and plenty of political posturing related to the Merrill acquisition. BofA shares (Ticker: BAC) have almost tripled since March, but have barely budged since early August.
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Summers to banks: Time to scratch our back
Posted on July 21, 2009 at 7:40 am
Larry Summers, President Obama’s chief economic advisor, says not enough lenders are doing their part to help consumers and business ride out the recession.
“Prudent financial institutions will recognize that the profits they’re enjoying are in part a reflection of the commitment government and the broader society have made to the financial system that has enabled them to enjoy those profits,” Summers said in an interview with Bloomberg News yesterday in Washington.
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What exactly does ’supplement’ mean?
Posted on July 20, 2009 at 8:06 amTARP’s watchdog says four out of five banks taking part in the program are using the government’s cash to supplement lending.
About 29 percent of institutions said they used TARP funds to make residential loans, 18 percent used TARP funds for commercial mortgages and 17 percent said they made other consumer loans with TARP funds, such as auto loans and personal lines of credit.
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Turner: Pinnacle ‘above-average’ TARP payback candidate
Posted on June 16, 2009 at 12:52 pmTalking to Bloomberg News, Pinnacle Financial CEO Terry Turner says his company will look to soon rid itself of the scarlet letter that TARP has become.
Banks that keep TARP funds will be viewed as troubled because they will face more onerous regulations and be unable to hire highly paid executives because of government limits on compensation, Turner said.
“The risks are significant as Congress, the Treasury and regulators continue to roll out more constraints,” Turner said.
Shares of Pinnacle (Ticker: PNFP) are bucking the overall market today, trading up almost 2 percent.
UPDATE 6 p.m.: Pinnacle has wrapped up its stock offering.
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TARP is a money maker
Posted on June 12, 2009 at 6:31 amSo far and with the country’s biggest lenders, anyway. But as many of the folks commenting on Gary Townsend’s latest piece point out, there are many other fish in the money-losing financial sea.
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Another 9 mill for Pinnacle
Posted on at 1:30 amThe bank holding company (Ticker: PNFP) and its underwriters have added more than 1.1 million shares to their offering.
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Big banks say good riddance to TARP
Posted on June 9, 2009 at 11:58 amThe Treasury has given a group of 10 banks the go-ahead to pay back a combined $68 billion they were issued late last year.
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Pinnacle files to raise $150M
Posted on May 29, 2009 at 9:25 amThe largest bank headquartered in Nashville wants to hit up the market for what would be its biggest-ever capital raise. It’s more than likely that a chunk of the cash it raises will go toward repaying the $95 million it took on under TARP.
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Analysts: Many banks looking to shrink
Posted on May 12, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Sandler O’Neill’s top bank analysts last week spent some time in New Orleans at the Gulf South Bank Conference. Here are some of the thoughts they took away from the presentations of and conversations with managers of some 20 regional banks, several of which have operations in Tennessee.
- Loan growth is nowhere near as important as a year ago. “Regulators, banks, and investors now seem to be on the same page on capital,” wrote managing directors Joe Fenech and Kevin Fitzsimmons. That echoes sounds that have come from other quarters of the industry, including the local folks at Pinnacle Financial and Tennessee Commerce, whose strong growth had them turning to TARP.
- Bankers are getting their arms around their problems. “It seems loans are migrating through the respective credit management buckets … in a more orderly and predictable fashion,” the analysts wrote.
- Institutions with a good number of hotel loans on their books will be sweating it this summer. Fenech and Fitzsimmons pass on word that a number of banks reported that the drop in leisure travel is beginning to bite the hospitality industry.
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Banking’s forgotten little guys
Posted on May 11, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Economist Mike Moebs says the government’s crisis plan to fix the country’s large banks has ignored the real drivers of Main Street’s expansion during the next upswing.
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BB&T moves to pay back TARP
Posted on at 8:16 amThe Carolina-based bank, which is the Nashville area’s 13th-largest deposit-taker and the anchor tenant in The Gulch’s Terrazzo tower, will raise $1.5 billion and cut its dividend.
“We have a long and proud history of paying dividends and understand how important the dividend is to our shareholders, so this decision to temporarily reduce the dividend was extremely difficult for the board and, for me personally, it marks the worst day in my 37 year career.
However, we firmly believe this action is in the long-term best interests of our shareholders and our company because of the risk and uncertainty associated with being a TARP participant. In addition, our current earnings, while superior to our peers, are not likely to justify our $.47 dividend in the near term.”
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Corker sees ‘glimmer of hope’ in financial sector
Posted on May 10, 2009 at 10:35 pm“There are glimmers of hope” in the financial sector, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked if the industry had turned a corner.
“I think it was a positive step,” said Corker of the Obama administrations’ recent “stress tests” on the nation’s largest banks.
“But there will possibly be additional government dollars [for some financial institutions]. I think that hasn’t fully been said and I think that what we’ve got to be concerned about as we move into the future is not causing [the Troubled Asset Relief Program] to be codified so that it’s there forever.”
“I actually am feeling better about it. I really am,” Corker, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, added.
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Dissecting the stress tests
Posted on May 7, 2009 at 10:14 pm
First, all the banks’ results neatly in a row. Among the banks with a notable presence in Nashville, only U.S. Bank and BB&T were deemed not to need new capital. BofA, Wells Fargo, Regions, SunTrust and Fifth Third must raise a combined $53 billion.
Then, from the AP comes a rundown of just how some of the affected players plan to raise the billions they need as well as word from those planning to repay TARP ASAP.
And via the Journal, a measured look at how the once-maligned concept of stress tests – Wells chief Dick Kovacevich not long ago called them ‘asinine’ – may actually come to be seen as the positive tipping point when we collectively caught our breath.
Investors fretted for weeks that the Treasury wanted to nationalize parts of the banking system, despite repeated efforts by Mr. Geithner and others to dispel that idea.
In retrospect, the tests were akin to hitting the pause button. The period allowed Mr. Geithner to buy time for the government’s evolving approach to the banking crisis, which had previously been ad hoc and heavily criticized.
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