Bank of America said on Wednesday it had completed repayment of US$45 billion to the US government from a capital injection under a program to stabilize the financial system.
The repayment, announced a week earlier, followed “the successful completion of a securities offering,” a Bank of America statement said.
The company sold 1.286 billion “common equivalent securities,” generating roughly US$19.29 billion, which was used along with existing liquidity to repay the US Treasury for funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
The company also paid 190 million in dividends on the Treasury’s preferred shares.
“We owe taxpayers our thanks for making these funds available to the nation’s financial system and to our company during a very difficult time,” chief executive Kenneth Lewis said.
The largest US bank by assets made the largest single payback under the TARP, a program approved by the US Congress last year at the height of the financial crisis. On Wednesday the government said it would extend the US$700 billion financial bailout program until next October.
The action by Bank of America leaves two major banks still holding US government capital from the program: Wells Fargo, which received US$25 billion, and Citigroup, with some US$45 billion.
Meanwhile, executives from 12 banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase & Co, will participate in a meeting with US President Barack Obama on Monday to discuss his proposals to boost small-business lending and overhaul industry regulations, said an administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Also at the White House meeting will be Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co, Capital One Financial Corp and American Express Co, Morgan Stanley and State Street Corp, the official said.
The official said another meeting would be held with the chiefs of smaller banks in the near future.
The session follows the jobs summit Obama hosted last Thursday and his speech on Tuesday in Washington where he focused on how to spur jobs growth by aiding small businesses.
The US president said he wants to use some of the remaining TARP money “to facilitate lending to small businesses.”
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