First Market gets TARP infusion of $33.9 million
Richmond-based First Market Bank has received $33.9 million from the U.S. Treasury as part of the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
First Market was among 28 banks to receive a total of $238.6 million in the latest batch of payments, bringing the government's total infusion in U.S. banks to $195.6 billion.
"The TARP funds are meant for healthy banks," said Katie Gilstrap, spokeswoman for First Market. "First Market has a very conservative credit culture. We have never been involved in subprime or risky loans."
Gilstrap said First Market will use the infusion of cash to make more loans.
"Banks have to meet certain criteria to apply and be accepted, plus the funds have to be repaid," she said.
The money is invested in preferred shares, which pay the government 5 percent for the first five years and 9 percent thereafter, unless the stock is redeemed.
The bank is owned by Ukrop's Super Markets Inc., the Ukrop family and Markel Corp.
A total of 20 Virginia banks have received capital infusions.
In the Richmond area, they include Central Virginia Bankshares Inc. in Powhatan, $11.4 million; Union Bankshares Corp. in Bowling Green, $59 million; and Eastern Virginia Bankshares in Tappahannock, $24 million.
Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or
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Trish911… go online to the Federal Election Commission website (fec.gov) and look up campaign contributions in the 2008 election. You’ll see that the banks gave about twice as much money to Obama as they gave to McCain and more money to Democrat candidates nationwide than Republicans.
Bush isn’t the reason the banks failed. Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are. Clinton in 1999 ordered banks to start making more loans to low-income applicants, ostensibly to try to give lower-income residents a chance at the American Dream of homeownership. Low-income people are a bigger risk than those making more money, so in order to make a profit and not mess up their normal operations, banks created a lot of ways for low-income people to borrow and still make money. But many low-income people don’t have the knowledge or discipline to properly manage their money, and we see the results of that problem now in the fact that 65 percent of all foreclosures in America involve households earning less than the median household income in America.
When Republicans like McCain saw the writing on the wall that the banks had gone too far and loaned to too many low-income people they went to Dodd and Frank and BEGGED both to hold hearings on bank mortgage practices to expose some of the ridiculous stuff they had come up with to try to satisfy Clinton’s edict. But Frank and Dodd—who, by the way, have also received hundreds of thousands in PAC money from banks—flat-out refused.
The result is what we have today— people who never should have been approved to buy a home to begin with in foreclosure or default because Clinton tried to do something without doing his homework. Don’t lay this on Bush. It was never his idea to allow the banks to create the shell games they created. that came from Clinton. And when people pleaded with the Democratic Congress to do something, they sided with their bank PAC buddies instead of the people.
what do you want to bet that every bank that got money in Virginia is a Republican supporter of the last administration.
What some of you apparently don’t realize is that this money allows the bank access to cheap capital, which allows them to make loans to Joe Schmo business owner, thus helping the economy.
And the reason that healthy banks are getting the money is because you have to be a healthy bank in order to even qualify for the program, so the government is comfortable with the investment (your dollars).
The best thing for Americans to do is stop doing business with companies who accepted TARP funds.
They are now beholdened to big government.
Big government now has more access to your personal information.
If Rahm Emanuel demands ATM transaction information from John Doe, who buys a pack of cigarettes daily using his First Market ATM card, do you think the bank will say “no”?
Chicago mobster Emanuel once sent a dead fish head in the mail to a political opponent.
I’m sure the banking people have all seen The Godfather and will do anything Emanuel asks.
So, First market got millions? does this mean they can now refinance my house at a better rate than I had before? Why is bailout money going to a healthy bank>? what is the compensation for First Market board members, do they now have a salary cap?
Why are the feds giving the Ukrops more money, don’t they already ahve more money then god?
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