Treasury announces additional sales of bank shares

The Treasury Department on Monday announced its intention to auction its warrant positions in Wells Fargo & Co., PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., Comerica Inc., Valley National Bancorp, Sterling Bancshares, Inc., and First Financial Bancorp.

The sales are expected over the next six weeks and represent the Department's remaining holdings in these companies. "Treasury intends to sell the warrants through public offerings," the Department stated in a release. "These offerings will be executed using a modified Dutch auction methodology that establishes a market price by allowing investors to submit bids at specified increments above a minimum price specified for each auction."

Last month, the Department said it would sell its roughly 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup common stock.