From this morning’s WSJ:
“The government got $68 billion Wednesday from 10 financial firms eager to escape the curbs that came with taxpayer-funded capital infusions.
Repayment of the bailout cash J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and the other companies got under the Troubled Asset Relief Program essentially leaves them on their own to wrestle with the recession and financial crisis. Some firms said they plan to immediately start the tricky task of negotiating to repurchase warrants that the government received in return for the infusions.”
This is significant for the banks who aren’t able to return the TARP money yet because it speaks to their stability—Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup are still under government control. The healthy banks are doing a lot to distance themselves from the still toxic laden banks. It is significant because JPMorgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and the others are now exempt from compensation legislation that is tied to bailouts. And it is significant because the taxpayers aren’t on the hook for this money any more.
The 10 firms were:
- JPMorgan Chase
- Goldman Sachs
- Morgan Stanley
- American Express
- Capital One
- BB&T
- USBancorp
- New York Mellon
- Northern Trust
- State Street Corp.
These banks have been approved to do this for several weeks now. Yesterday was just the technical transfer of cash.