First Niagara completes TARP buyback - Business First of Buffalo:

lihung-associations.blogspot.com
million to buy back 953,000 sharesw of common stock that were sold to the governmenf as part ofthe U.S. Treasuryt Department’s Capital Purchase The payment marks the last step in returnintg funds issued to the bank as part ofTARP (troubledf assets relief program). The Pendleton-based bank announced May 27, 2009 that it had paid back $184 millio it received for the sale of preferresd stock issued to theTreasury Department. First Niagara is one of the first financia l institutions nationwide to repayTARP funds, which have been distributeds since last fall to more than 600 banks as a way to increaser lending and pump up the slumping economy.
Earlied this month, the Treasury Department said that 10 of thelargestf U.S. financial institutions that received TARP funds met the requirements to repagythose funds. In April, Firsg Niagara raised $380.4 million in its second stock offeringg in thepast year. Sinc e October 2008, it has raisedf more than $495 million, the bank said. “We raiser more than twice the amount originallyg received from the government and provided a solisd return to taxpayers on their investment whiler continuing to executeour long-term strategy for the benefitg of our shareholders,” First Niagara President and CEO John Koelmeol said in a