Non Tarp Banks Are Doing Better

Paul R. La Monica finds that stocks that didn’t take TARP money have done better than the ones that did.

I’ve dug up, with the help of research available on TARP tracker Bailoutsleuth.com, at least 54 publicly traded banks that explicitly refused to take part in TARP. And it’s worth pointing out that several of them are decent-sized.
Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) and People’s United Financial (PBCT) are both in the S&P 500. Commerce Bancshares (CBSH), BOK Financial (BOKF) and NY Community Bancorp (NYB) are among the 50 largest banks in the country as ranked by assets, according to figures from the Federal Reserve.
That’s interesting considering many big-bank executives argued that they only took TARP funds because they were strong-armed into do it and thought not taking the cash would make them look weak and unworthy of government support. That justification sounds pretty bogus now.
Consider this: Shares of the 54 banks that didn’t want a bailout are, on average, down just 16% since last September. That’s compared to a 30% drop for the KBW Bank Index and 36% plunge for the S&P Regional Bank Index.

That’s not all. The non-TARPers are expected to see a 17% jump in profits this year, plus their dividend yield now stands at 3.3%.

Posted by on September 14th, 2009 at 12:29 pm


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