"many banks have used bailout money to pay down debts"
So WHERE is YOUR TAXPAYER-FUNDED BAILOUT, American taxpayer?
"Billions in aid to banks not reaching many seeking loans; Lending giants tough on small-business owners" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | November 2, 2009
Last month, Tim Burr needed $35,000 to boost his small software company, so he applied for loans at Bank of America and Citibank, both of which took billions of dollars in government bailout funds intended to spur lending and lift the economy out of a recession.
They turned him down....
Loan numbers typically drop during a recession because business demand is lower and banks become more conservative, especially when dealing with struggling companies whose credit has eroded.... Brian Bethune, an economic analyst for IHS Global Insight, a Lexington forecasting firm, said large banks that received bailout funds have turned away potential borrowers because they don’t have enough cash on hand. Stuck with so-called “toxic assets’’ - bad real estate and other investments - many banks have used bailout money to pay down debts....
Related: Toxic Assets Toxic For Taxpayers Only
Trillion Dollar Toxin Brings Wall Street to Life
Slow Saturday Special: Treasury Dumps American Taxpayers
Taxpayers Take Profits on Bailout
Yeah, you are benefiting off all this, 'murka.
Bank of America.... the recipient of more than $45 billion in federal relief
Citibank.... accepted about $50 billion in bailout money.
Citizens Bank.... benefited from a $31.9 billion bailout from the British government.
Other banks that do business in Massachusetts and accepted money from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program also slowed lending or offered no loans....
Wainwright Bank & Trust.... got $22 million from taxpayers.
Central Bancorp of Somerville and OneUnited of Boston received $10 million and $12 million respectively. Neither loaned money.
“That’s what has a lot of people on Main Street angry,’’ said Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University Law School. “It doesn’t appear to them that bankers have suffered that much’’ because of the recession, he said....
Angry is a mild word; try enraged fury!
Some of the state’s smallest - and most stable - banks have been filling part of the lending void.
Eastern Bank.... did not receive any bailout money.
Now THAT is my kind of bank!
David Bennett, vice president of small business lending at Middlesex Community Savings Bank, said community banks have always been in tune with small business needs because they make lending decisions based on the needs of customers, not shareholders....
As a result, big banks may be losing credit-worthy customers to smaller counterparts....
And the CUSTOMER is MUCH BETTER for it!!!!
