Who: 707 banks and financial institutions in 48 states. What: Treasury bought preferred stock in banks of every size (the Capital Purchase Program) to shore up their capital.
$205B
committed or authorized
$205B
paid out
$227B
recovered (repayments, dividends, fees)
$16.3B
net profit (Treasury lifetime estimate)
Outcome
Closed. Repayments, dividends, and warrant sales returned $226.8B. $3.3B was written off at 34 banks that failed or went bankrupt, most of it CIT Group ($2.3B).
Legal authority: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (TARP).
Who got it: Largest recipients (Capital Purchase Program)
Oct 2008▲ Oversight addedCongress creates a special inspector general for TARP (SIGTARP) and a Congressional Oversight Panel in the bailout law itself. Source
2024▲ Oversight addedTARP's inspector general closes on schedule after 474 prosecutions, 326 prison sentences (75 of them bankers), and more than $11.4B recovered. Source
Worth knowing
Citigroup and Bank of America each got another $20B (see “Citigroup & BofA extra rescue”).