NEW YORK—With the recent exit of a New York-based depository, only two banks and two credit unions are still participating in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which has included 763 institutions since it was launched in 2008 to recapitalize the industry in the wake of the credit crisis.
Carver Bancorp Inc. became the latest to exit TARP after completing the repurchase of shares from the Treasury in August. The remaining banks are Boston-based OneUnited Bank and Baltimore-based Harbor Bank of Maryland, while the credit unions are Berkeley, Calif.-based Cooperative Center FCU and Washington-based DC FCU, S&P Global Market Intelligence reported.
“Like Carver, OneUnited and Harbor Bank are among the few remaining FDIC Black-owned minority-designated institutions. Carver's mission to assist minority and women-owned businesses in New York helped it attract the funding for the exit,” S&P Global said.
The Treasury's investments in financial institutions that remain under TARP are relatively small compared to the overall size of the program. Each of the Big Four banks, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. received investments of $25 billion in the program. By comparison, Harbor only received $6.8 million, with $5.3 million now outstanding, while there is a $12.1 million investment outstanding in OneUnited, S&P Global said.
Michael Rivera, a partner at Bass Berry & Sims PLC and former chief investigative counsel for the Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP, noted it's possible the government could force an exit of the remaining institutions as Treasury has auctioned TARP shares in the past.
"The government could figure out a way to get them out if they wanted to," said Rivera.