Thursday, March 5, 2009

CEO says "no" to the dough.

Bill Cooper, CEO of TCF Bank in Minnesota, has spoken up. He said "No thanks." to the bailout money that the federal government offered his bank. TCF Bank wants to return the $361 million it received about 4 months ago. Cooper stated that TCF hadn't engaged in subprime lending and many other practices that caused so many institutions to fail. They have enough funds to sustain their operations and don't need the money that they were offered. Not to mention, the strings that are attached to taking TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds. He stated that Congress did bit of a bait & switch - placing restrictions on dividends, employee bonuses and executive compensation. Compensation cannot exceed $400,000 which causes a problem, he says, for executives who work on commission. Accepting these funds simply wasn't good business for TCF.

This morning, on the news, Cooper summed up his thoughts on such funds by stating that taking money from the federal government is like borrowing money from your mother-in-law. Eventually, she's going to want to paint your bedroom.

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