Financial Regulatory Forum

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday said it priced warrants in JPMorgan Chase & Co at $10.75 per warrant in a deal that will bring U.S. taxpayers net proceeds of $936.06 million.

The 88.4 million warrants to purchase common stock in JPMorgan were priced in a modified Dutch auction. The sale marks the disposal of the government’s remaining investment in the banking giant, which the Treasury received last year in exchange for $25 billion in bailout money.

The closing of the warrant sale is expected to occur on or about Dec. 16. Deutsche Bank Securities was the sole bookrunner, with Ramirez & Co., The Williams Capital Group and Utendahl Capital Group co-managing the offering.

The sale is the latest in a series of Treasury auctions of warrants received from banks that accessed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Last week, Treasury priced warrants in Capital One Financial Corp at $11.75 each, bringing in net proceeds of $146.5 million. It also has set plans to auction warrants in TCF Financial Corp.

NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc plans to pay back TARP by raising money in an equity offering that could be announced as early as Thursday and could be some $20 billion, television network CNBC reported, citing sources.

Earlier on Wednesday, the bank’s chairman, Dick Parsons, told CNBC that Citigroup was in talks with regulators about repaying the funds it received from the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“We believe Citigroup is in a position to repay the TARP money, but there is an active discussion we have to have with regulators …” said Parsons, who was at New York Governor David Paterson’s speech on the economy on Wednesday at the Museum of American Finance.

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday extended the government’s $700 billion financial bailout fund to October 2010, saying it was still needed for “significant challenges” in the economy.

Geithner, in letters to congressional leaders, pledged to deploy no more than $550 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, allowing the remainder to reduce budget deficits.

The extension, opposed by many Republicans, will allow the Obama administration to tap the financial rescue program for further efforts to fight home foreclosures and to ease credit for small businesses in the hopes of spurring job growth.

By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – The projected long-term cost of the U.S. government’s bailout of the nation’s big banks is going to be at least $200 billion less than previously thought, a Treasury Department official said.

(more…)

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s $700 billion bailout program will “almost certainly” result in an overall loss for taxpayers, a key auditor for the program said on Thursday.

(more…)

    Nov 12 (Reuters) – The White House is looking to cut its budget deficit by using some unspent funds from the the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. (more…)

   By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. pay czar said on Monday that he will determine “in the near future” how he will use his power to claw back pay at companies that have taken bailout money but is not currently in negotiations to do so.

(more…)

   By Steve Eder
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – The Obama administration’s pay czar, who sent shock waves through Wall Street by slashing compensation at seven bailed-out companies, says those moves were just the beginning.

(more…)

By Glenn Somerville
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) – The Obama administration appears to want to keep an inherited $700 billion financial rescue fund going past its scheduled expiry at year-end, but is retooling the program to focus on more than just banks.

That would be a major shift from its original purpose as a vehicle for propping up big banks — now seen as neither needing nor deserving a taxpayer-supported helping hand — and may set up a battle with Congress over the program’s fate.

(more…)

By Glenn Somerville and David Lawder
WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) – The Obama administration will shutter programs at the heart of a $700 billion financial bailout but remains focused on supporting a fledgling economic recovery, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

(more…)