98 Bailed-Out Banks Headed Toward Failure

Ninety-eight (98) U.S. banks that were bailed out by U.S. taxpayers show signs they are in jeopardy of failing.  Seven (7) TARP recipients have already failed, resulting in more than $2.7 billion in lost TARP funds. 

Chris Cole, senior regulatory counsel at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group, said small banks are "turning around slowly." Smaller TARP recipients are in worse shape than larger banks because the larger ones got help in addition to TARP, Mr. Cole said. Bank of America and Citigroup tapped the Federal Reserve's emergency-liquidity programs frequently during the crisis.

An FDIC spokesman declined to comment on the Journal's analysis, which also calculated that 814 of the nation's 7,760 banks and savings institutions are troubled according to these standards, up from 729 at the end of the second quarter. The FDIC's official list of problem banks, which uses different criteria from the Journal's analysis, includes 860 financial institutions. The banks aren't publicly identified.

Please read more in the Wall Street Journal.