TARP Recipients Struggle to Repay

TARP Recipients Struggle to Repay

There has been a good deal of positive press related to the repayment of government bail-out funds, formally referred to as TARP. Along with manufacturers like GM, many of the financial institutions who received loans from the government have already paid them back.

Recent reports by the Wall Street Journal, however, point to many of the smaller banks who are struggling to repay or have already gone under. Accroding to the report, there are currently 98 banks which are in very precarious financial positions even after receiving more than $4 billion in TARP money.

An additional seven institutions have already gone under taking just under three billion dollars in government money with them. As the program was rolled out, TARP funds were supposed to only find their way to institutions which were sound enough to be able to pay the money back. Unfortunately, it appears that the government may not have been as judicious as they should have been in selecting the recipients.