After almost a year of initiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to rescue the nation’s financial industry, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that it would auction off stock warrants it acquired from three big banks that received a significant portion of taxpayers’ money and have fully repaid the same. The [...]

(JPM) Treasury to Auction TARP Warrants

After almost a year of initiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to rescue the nation’s financial industry, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that it would auction off stock warrants it acquired from three big banks that received a significant portion of taxpayers’ money and have fully repaid the same. The government is taking this step to free the lenders from the federal bailout program. 

The three banks, whose warrants will be sold via auctions over the next month, are JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Capital One Financial (COF) and TCF Financial Corporation (TCB). These three banks, that received a total of $28.9 billion from the TARP, have fully repurchased Treasury's preferred stock investment. The current move to sell their warrants will completely free these banks from government intervention. 

The government still holds warrants of 261 banks, out of which only 15 have paid back the bailout money but not repurchased their warrants yet. Many other financial institutions that have already repaid bailout money include American Express (AXP), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), BB&T Corporation (BBT) and US Bancorp (USB). Also, banks like Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) are expected to exit TARP over the next 12 to 18 months. 

Treasury will sell the warrants through a modified Dutch auction. According to the format, the three banks will be able to bid for the warrants themselves. However, the price at which banks could buy back the warrants became a contentious issue as banks started repaying their bailouts. 

We think that the repayment of government money and repurchase of warrants can be viewed as a sign of recovery of the institutions as well as the economy. Also, the full repayment of government money by the bailed-out firms will help protect their executive compensation packages.
Read the full analyst report on "JPM"
Read the full analyst report on "COF"
Read the full analyst report on "TCB"
Read the full analyst report on "AXP"
Read the full analyst report on "GS"
Read the full analyst report on "MS"
Read the full analyst report on "BBT"
Read the full analyst report on "USB"
Read the full analyst report on "BAC"
Read the full analyst report on "WFC"
Read the full analyst report on "C"
Zacks Investment Research

After almost a year of initiating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to rescue the nation’s financial industry, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that it would auction off stock warrants it acquired from three big banks that received a significant portion of taxpayers’ money and have fully repaid the same. The government is taking this step to free the lenders from the federal bailout program.[More...]

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Mixed News for Credit Card Issuers

U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline in late payments in the first half of the year, the increase in delinquencies is bad news for the sector as it implies that the companies could experience more charge-offs in the coming quarters.

Consumers remain under stress as a result of the weakness in the housing market, combined with job losses. Recently, Fitch has also expressed its concern about the credit card issuers in the U.S. Fitch expects U.S. credit card issuers’ earnings to remain challenged over the near term as a result of soaring unemployment, bankruptcies and losses.

The default rate (or charge-off rate) has improved in October from the prior month. For American Express Co. (AXP) it was down 60 basis points (bps) to 7.8%, while for Bank of America Corp. (BAC) the rate dropped 103 bps to 13.22% in October. The situation was the same for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF). JPMorgan’s default rate declined 10 bps to 8.02%, Citigroup’s defaults fell 136 bps to 8.79% and Capital One's charge-off rate decreased 73 bps to 9.04%.

However, we are concerned about the rise in delinquencies which increased 34 basis points to 5.72% in October at Capital One, 26 bps to 4.95% at JPMorgan and 6 bps to 7.59% at Bank of America. However, delinquencies remain unchanged at American Express.

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Zacks Investment Research

U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline in late payments in the first half of the year, the increase in delinquencies is bad news for the [...]

(AXP) Mixed News for Credit Card Issuers