Banks, Bailouts | featured news

Ireland's ailing banks need another euro24 billion ($34 billion) in cash in a move that will leave all of them under state control and facing a complete overhaul, officials announced Thursday in a long-awaited effort to cap a 3-year banking crisis....

Banks are finally beginning to lend, the big ones that is. Commercial and industrial lending is up this quarter 0.2% from the third quarter, according to Moody's Analytics. That might not sound like much, but it's the first quarterly increase in two years. This is great, right? After all, if banks are lending more to businesses, they can expand and begin to hire. That's true, but this trend reveals something else: the financial crisis has created an environment where big banks are getting bigger, as the small ones struggle.

The Obama administration has begun monitoring the high-level board meetings of nearly 20 banks that received emergency taxpayer assistance but repeatedly failed to pay the required dividends, according to Treasury Department officials and documents. And it may soon install new directors on some of their boards.

The U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program, which risked $700 billion of government funds to bail out troubled banks and automakers, will cost taxpayers a mere $25 billion, according to an estimate released on Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The former chief executive of Park Avenue Bank pleaded guilty to charges that he attempted to defraud the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

American International Group Inc and the U.S. government agreed on a plan that would see the insurer repay taxpayers fully for bailing it out at the height of the financial crisis.

As thousands of nervous depositors stampeded the central branch of the beleaguered Kabul Bank, the Afghan and United States governments tentatively agreed to bail out the bank.

In its single biggest repayment of bailout loans so far, American International Group Inc. said Monday it is paying back nearly $4 billion in taxpayer aid with proceeds from a recent debt sale.

Government-controlled mortgage finance giant says it will request $8.4B from taxpayers to stay afloat.

The Treasury Department said Monday that it plans to sell up to 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup stock, its latest move to unwind the support it provided big banks during the financial crisis....