Citigroup And Government Not Seeing Eye To Eye On TARP Repayment

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Why (serious question) do they have to raise any capital at all? Isn't the fact that they're "the world's most global bank in a world that becomes more global every day" good enough? Would a free coupon to Tickle a Vickle Town do the trick?

The disagreements are related to last week's announcement by the Treasury Department that Bank of America Corp. won approval to repay its $45 billion in federal aid. The Charlotte, N.C., bank sold about $19 billion in common stock late Thursday as part of its repayment strategy.

Officials at Citigroup and Wells Fargo have prodded U.S. officials to let them proceed under similar terms, according to the people familiar with the matter. Bank officials are worried they could be at a competitive disadvantage if they don't quickly follow Bank of America by repaying their TARP funds.
Citigroup is looking to redeem $20 billion of preferred stock, while Wells Fargo got $25 billion from TARP. Citigroup executives have been told they would need to raise $20 billion in common stock to exit TARP, according to the people familiar with the matter. Wells Fargo also was told it would have to drum up billions of dollars in new capital

Banks, US Spar Over TARP Repayment [WSJ

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Yesterday afternoon, Deutsche Bank vice chairman and managing director Brian Mulligan filed a claim with the city of Los Angeles, letting it be known that he plans on suing for $50 million, over an altercation with the LAPD that left Mulligan with "a broken shoulder blade and 15 nasal fractures." According to the media banker, he was minding his own business one night in May, when a couple of officers approached him, asked him what he was doing in the vicinity of a marijuana dispensary, searched his car (where they found a few thousand dollars), drove him to a motel and told him to wait there. Several hours later, still waiting, Mulligan says he started to become suspicious and decided to leave, at which point the officers returned and "began ruthlessly beating him" so badly he "barely looked human" when they were done. If this had happened to you, you might be a little upset too! The LAPD, however, claims that Mulligan has no reason to be angry with them and, in fact, owes the officers an apology, for his "outburst of erratic behavior." The police version begins with a complaint about a man going through cars in a Jack-in-the-Box in the Highland Park area, according to LAPD Officer Cleon Joseph. Moments later, a second call came from another person about a man in the same area who appeared to be on drugs and trying to break into cars...The officers determined Mulligan matched the description of the suspect, but a police drug recognition expert determined he was not under the influence of drugs. Joseph said he could not clarify whether that included alcohol. Officers then searched Mulligan's car and found thousands of dollars, Joseph said. Mulligan told the officers that he was exhausted, so the officers agreed to transport him to a motel, Joseph said. But first, they had to count the executive's cash to make sure it was all still there after they transported him to the hotel, Joseph explained. The officers gave Mulligan's money back to him, drove him to the motel and left him, concluding their response, Joseph said. A few hours later, at about 1 a.m., police received another call from the same area, this time about a man running in traffic. Officers observed Mulligan in the street, Joseph said. He defied officers' orders to get out of the street, and instead went into a fighting stance and charged at the officers, according to Joseph. Officers tackled Mulligan and took control of him, Joseph said. During the take-down, the executive sustained injuries that required hospitalization. Police reported the incident as a categorical use of force and are conducting a standard investigation to determine if the force was necessary. Mulligan was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with law enforcement. He was booked on $25,000 bail and was released from jail on May 18. Despite Mulligan acting in such a way that some people thought required "force" to deal with, a spokesman for the LA County DA's office said that there are no plans to file criminal charges and that the office would simply like to "have a discussion with him and advise him on how best to follow the law so that incidents like this don’t occur again." Brian Mulligan, Deutsche Bank Executive, Says He'll Sue LAPD Alleging Captive Beating [HP] Deutsche Bank Top Hollywood Banker Claims Police Beating [Bloomberg]

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The Federal Reserve has this new paper out about TARP that does a bit of highly suggestive eyebrow raising about some banks that shall remain nameless. They start from the awkward fact that TARP wanted everything in one bag but didn't want the bag to be heavy, or as they put it: The conflicted nature of the TARP objectives reflects the tension between different approaches to the financial crisis. While recapitalization was directed at returning banks to a position of financial stability, these banks were also expected to provide macro-stabilization by converting their new cash into risky loans. TARP was a use of public tax-payer funds and some public opinion argued that the funds should be used to make loans, so that the benefit of the funds would be passed through directly to consumers and businesses. So you might reasonably ask: were TARP funds locked in the vault to return the recipient banks to financial health, or blown on loans to risky ventures, or other? Well, here is Figure 1 (aggregate commercial and industrial loans from commercial banks in the U.S.): So ... not loaned then. But that's not important! The authors are actually looking not primarily at aggregate amounts of loans but at riskiness of loans and here's what they get:

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According to the police, they found Brian Mulligan high on bath salts after "several" calls had been placed about a man in the area "trying to break into cars" that fit Mulligan's description. He supposedly told them he was "tired," which they say is why they drove him to a motel to get some shuteye. When he (allegedly) emerged hours later and started running through traffic despite officers' orders to get out of the street, later assuming a "fight stance," they decided it was necessary to deal with him in an aggressive manner. Didn't want to, felt they owed it to him. According to Mulligan, this is what happened:

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