Treasury to auction warrants in three more TARP banks

The Treasury Department this week will conduct warrant auctions for three financial firms that have repaid their Troubled Asset Relief Program aid, the agency announced Monday.

Once the auctions are complete, Treasury will no longer have any stake in the companies, all of which repaid their government capital last spring.

Up for auction is:

      -- 1,707,456 shares of Washington Federal Inc., exercisable at $17.57  per share. Its shares were trading at $19.42 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern  Monday.

      -- 595,829 shares of Signature Bank, exercisable at $30.21 per share.  Its shares were trading at $38.97.

      -- 758,086 shares of Texas Capital Bancshares Inc., exercisable at $14.84 per share.  Its shares were trading at $17.23.

The minimum bid per warrant is $5.00 for Washington Federal, $16.00 for Signature Bank and $6.50 for Texas Capital.

The auctions, to be run by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., will be held on Tuesday for Washington Federal, on Wednesday for Signature Bank and on Thursday for Texas Capital.

This is the second round of warrant auctions Treasury has conducted this month. Last week, Treasury sold two sets of Bank of America Corp. warrants for $1.54 billion -- 36 percent higher than the value estimated by the Congressional Oversight Panel.

Under TARP, Washington Federal received $200 million in taxpayer money, Signature Bank got $120 million and Texas Capital got $75 million.