Five more banks decline TARP funds

Five more banks have declined to participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program despite being approved for government aid.

ChoiceOne Financial Services Inc., of Sparta, Mich., said Monday that it had decided to turn down the $9.65 million in taxpayer capital it was allotted.

The Treasury Department announced in October that it would make $250 billion available to banks through the Capital Purchase Program, in which qualifying institutions sell preferred stock to the government.

ChoiceOne thought it prudent to apply for the money given the uncertainties in the financial markets in late 2008, President James Bosserd said.

 "We believe that the CPP is a good program that is available to qualified banks to build capital," Bosserd said in a prepared statement. "Our Board of Directors and management carefully considered all the aspects of the funding for which we were approved. We decided that the cost of the investment, the restrictions placed upon us if we accepted the funds, and potential dilution of existing shareholders outweighed the benefits of the funds."

First Citizens Bancorp Inc., of Columbia, S.C., said it was turning down $50 million in TARP money. Pinnacle Bancshares Inc., of Jasper, Ala., said it was turning down $4.8 million.

Ledyard Financial Group Inc., of Hanover, N.H., and Commerce State Bank of West Bend, Wis., also announced that they had told the Treasury Department they had decided not to participate.

Neither of those banks disclosed how much taxpayer capital they had been approved to receive.

More than 60 banks have either publicly declined their TARP allotments, or returned the money within months after taking it.