Six institutions pay back TARP loans; government makes slight profit

Six financial institutions have repaid the Treasury Department for funds borrowed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Treasury announced Wednesday.

The government made $13.7 million in profits on dividends from each of the investments, which totaled $2.7 billion. The funds were loaned to the institutions under the TARP's Capital Purchase Program, which was a voluntary program under which the Treasury agreed to buy shares from financial insitutions to provide them with capital to finance business and consumer loans.

Huntingdon Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, repurchased $1.4 billion worth of shares, paying $7.2 million in accrued dividends. First Horizon National Corp. in Memphis bought back $866.5 million in shares and paid out $4.5 million in dividends.

Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., repurchased $250 million of its shares while paying the government $1.3 million in accrued dividends, and Susquehanna Bancshares Inc., in Lititz, Pa., bought back $100 million of its shares and paid $513,889 in dividends. Heritage Financial Corp. in Olympia, Wash., bought $24 million of its shares and paid $123,333 in dividends. 

The Bank of Kentucky Financial Corp. in Crestview Hills, Ky., bought $17 million of its shares while paying the government $87,361 in dividends. The Treasury still owns $17 million in shares of that bank.

Of the $389 billion made in TARP loans by the government, now $234 billion has been repaid, and $35 billion in income has been made on the repaid loans and sale of other securities, according to the Treasury.