Treasury Department invests in 20 more banks

The Treasury Department has made investments in 20 additional banks, adding $539 million to the amount of taxpayer money it has committed to U.S. financial institutions.

Few, if any, of the banks had previously announced their participation in the program. The details of the investments were disclosed Tuesday in a summary of transactions that the Treasury Department included in a press release.

In another bailout-related development, the Office of Thrift Supervision authorized  two big insurance and investment companies, The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., and Lincoln National Corp., to convert to bank holding companies. Both are seeking to buy savings and loans so they can tap into the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it invested $267.3 million in New York Private Bank & Trust Corp., based in New York City. It also invested $100 million in F.N.B. Corp., of Hermitage, Penn.

According to the Treasury Department summary, one bank that had previously announced its approval for $248 million in TARP money took only about half that amount. The bank, FirstMerit Corp. of Akron, Ohio, opted for $125 million.

In other new deals, First Security Group Inc., of Chattanooga, Tenn., sold $33 million in stock to the government. Community Trust Financial Corp., of Ruston, La., got $24 million, and First Financial Service Corp. of Elizabethtown, Ky., got $20 million.

The Treasury Department invested $16.5 million in Codorus Valley Bancorp Inc., of York, Pa.; $13.4 million in LCNB Corp., of Lebanon, Ohio; and $12 million in The Queensborough Co., of Louisville, N.C.

To see the other banks that got smaller amounts of TARP money, follow the link for the rest of the story.