Treasury Buys Shares Of Discover Financial, 18 Other Banks
17 Marzo 2009 - 7:30PM
Dow Jones News
Discover Financial Services (DFS) on Friday joined the list of
newly formed bank holding companies to receive government capital
through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The U.S. Treasury confirmed Tuesday that Discover received $1.23
billion in capital through the program Friday. Discover, which
filed for bank holding company status late last year, said Friday
it officially became a bank holding company "immediately prior" to
completing the transaction with Treasury.
Discover is among several institutions, including American
Express Co. (AXP), CIT Group (CIT), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan
Stanley (MS) and GMAC LLC, that have converted to bank holding
company status in the midst of the financial crisis.
Treasury's purchase of Discover shares was the largest it made
last week under a bank-recapitalization effort that is part of
TARP. Treasury last week purchased a total of $1.46 billion in
shares from 19 financial institutions.
The U.S. Treasury so far has provided $198.5 billion in capital
to more than 500 financial institutions.
-By Meena Thiruvengadam, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6629;
meena.thiruvengadam@dowjones.com