Banks that want to return Troubled Asset Relief Program funds will have to demonstrate their ability to wean themselves off another major federal program, according to senior government officials, making it less attractive for some banks to return the money.
The other program, a guarantee of debt issuance offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., allows firms to borrow money relatively inexpensively. Banks have $332.5 billion of debt outstanding under this program, which began last fall.
If a bank is healthy and solvent and able to lend money freely, then it should be allowed to turn down extraordinary government aid and operate without extraordinary government oversight. But there’s more to the federal bailout program than just TARP, and if a bank is really healthy it doesn’t need to take advantage of any of the other extraordinary programs either. Until and unless that happens, however, Treasury should insist that they keep their TARP money and stay under TARP rules. No stealth bailouts, please.
