That's NOT 5 PERCENT, NOT 1/2 of ONE PERCENT, but LESS than 1/20th of ONE PERCENT!!!
In rough terms, for every $100 dollars you gave to bail out banks, you just got back 1/20th of ONE PENNY!! Twenty more payments and the bank will have given you a penny -- with only 2,125 more payments to go (like you will ever see them, taxpayer, as you must pay interest on the borrowed money the bank is paying you back with) before they pay off the principle alone (that interest you are charged for borrowing, taxpayers, goes to banks. Surprised?)!!!
"Five banks repay $353m in financial bailout funds" by Globe Wire Services | April 3, 2009
Five banks have repaid millions of dollars they received from the government's $700 billion financial bailout pot, the Obama administration said yesterday. The Treasury Department, which oversees the bailout program, said the banks returned a total of $353 million.
The banks are: Iberiabank Corp. of Lafayette, La.; Bank of Marin Bancorp of Novato, Calif.; Old National Bancorp. of Evansville, Ind.; Signature Bank of New York; and Centra Financial Holdings Inc. of Morgantown, W. Va.
They were the first banks to repay the government, wanting to escape the increasingly tough restrictions placed on participants in the rescue program.
Oh, so THEY DID IT out of SELF INTEREST so they could, what, KEEP their BONUSES?!!!!
In addition to the $353 million, the banks paid the government a total of $5.4 million in dividends, Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams said. The five banks have 15 days to buy back warrants from the government.
Also yesterday, the Senate, in a nonbinding vote, endorsed a proposal to use the remaining funds in the Troubled Asset Relief Program to help small businesses.
--more--"