With the application deadline for the Treasury Department's stock purchase program looming at the end of the week, a growing number of banks are announcing whether they intend to apply for government money.
The final wave of approvals is likely to include a number of small banks that are seeking some of the roughly $80 billion that remains of the $250 billion originally allocated for capital injections.
Intermountain Community Bancorp said Friday it had been selected by the Treasury Department for the program. The bank, based in
The new money will increase the bank's lending capacity and strengthen its competitive position, said Curt Hecker, president and chief executive officer.
"The capital is offered at favorable terms,'' he said in a prepared statement. "As such, it will serve as relatively low-cost insurance against uncertain economic times we face, and gives us an advantage with respect to future opportunities.''
Pamrapo Bancorp Inc. of
Pamrapo and the Office of Thrift Supervision agreed to a cease-and-desist order in late September that called for the bank to hire a consultant to help it comply with laws and regulations related to money laundering, currency transactions and suspicious activities.
The bank said that the action was unrelated to the soundness of the bank or the security of customer accounts. The Office of Thrift Supervision's order did not provide details of the activities that raised concerns.
Several other small banks announced last week that they would not be participating in the Treasury Department program.
Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc., which is based in
The bank said it had ample liquidity and was actively looking to make as many "good loans'' as it could find.
Capitol Federal Financial, which operates 40 banks in
Clifton Savings Bancorp Inc., which has headquarters in
.
This supposed liquidity problem is pretty silly to me. I do not understand why people are wondering "why has none of this government money solved the liquidity problem and caused banks to start lending again?!" The government has temporarily created this problem when they basically announced that they were gonna set a price for these troubled mortgage assets with the TARP plan. The market is waiting to see how much is going to be paid for those assets when the government starts buying them. Until that actually begins to happen, these banks have no idea what those assets on their books are really worth (because they can't be valued at market value any longer...they are valued by what the gov't is willing to pay for them). If the banks don't know what their assets are worth, they can't reasonably go on a "lending spree", but instead must be protective of the assets that they can value.
Banks will start lending again when the Fed finishes what it started and "sets the price" for these bad mortgage assets by actually starting to buy them.
Is there a list of banks that have been denied for the program and the reasons why? Has any bank been denied for the bailout yet?
Under the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005, about $5 Billion in bank deposit insurance premiums was refunded to the banks in 2006 because the FDIC Banking Insurance Fund was “over-funded”, according to banking regulators (then FDIC Chairman Don Powell) and congressional banking committee chairmen – Christopher Dodd (Senate) and Barney Frank (House) who made sure the money was refunded – i.e., kicked back - to the banks in time to help fund the 2006 congressional races. Of course, most all Repubs voted with the Dims to kick-back the bank insurance fund money to their hometown banks.
Every insured bank and savings institution in the country received a kick-back from the FDIC under the Chairmanship of Don Powell. As an example, WAMU (largest bank failure in history)received about $165 Million from the FDIC insurance fund 18 months before it failed. Actually it was $164,962,392.08 per the FDIC http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/insurance/initiative/index.html
Make no mistake about it, the FDIC is essentially run by the banking industry – not as an independent government agency.
This is yet another clear example that there is no meaningful integrity in our Congress as currently seated.