On February 3, 2010, the Treasury Department announced enhancements to the TARP Capital Purchase Program for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). In addition to significant improvements for CDFIs, for the first time the Treasury Department has formally announced that it will consider private matching investments to determine bank viability – which could be a significant signal of how the Treasury might treat community banks under the proposed $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund.
Basic Program Terms
- CDFI’s can apply for capital equal to up to 5 percent of their total risk weighted assets.
- The dividend rate on the preferred stock will be 2% for eight years (as opposed to 5% for five years under the original Capital Purchase Program) before increasing to 9%.
- CDFI’s with existing TARP Capital Purchase Program investments will be eligible to transfer those investments into this program (effectively lowering the carrying costs of the capital and potentially providing additional capital, if desired).
- Consistent with the previous terms for CDFI’s, CDFI’s will not be required to issue any warrants or other additional equity kickers to the Treasury Department under the program.
Matching Capital
As noted above, for the first time the Treasury Department has formally recognized the possibility of institutions raising matching private capital to become eligible for TARP capital. Specifically, the new plan contemplates that if a CDFI might not otherwise be approved by its regulator, it will be eligible to participate “so long as it can raise enough private capital that – when matched with the Treasury capital up to 5 percent of risk-weighted assets – it can reach viability.” The new private capital will have to be junior to the TARP investment (i.e. common stock or preferred stock with lower preferences – although potentially higher dividend rates – than the TARP preferred stock).
Regulators Issue Statement on Lending to Creditworthy Small Businesses
On February 5, 2010, the federal banking regulators and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors issued an Interagency Statement on the Credit Needs of Creditworthy Small Business Borrowers. The Statement builds upon principles set forth in the October 2009 Policy Statement on Prudent Commercial Real Estate Loan Workouts. After noting the overall decline in loans to small businesses and the reasons for that decline the regulators suggested that lenders may have become overly cautious with respect to small business lending. They encourage lenders to engage in prudent small business lending and that that examiners will not criticize lenders for working in prudent and constructive manner with small businesses.
The decline in small business lending has many reasons, not the least of which is that loan demand is actually down. Lenders are also naturally cautious of lending to those businesses that are reliant solely on cash flow that has slowed due to the slowdown in consumer spending and the decline ion the personal wealth of the owners of the businesses. Despite the assertions to the contrary by the regulators, lenders are concerned that there is a disconnect between statements from Washington, DC and what actually happens in the field when examiners are onsite at financial institutions. Our experience seems to show that local federal regulators do not see any upside in being flexible when faced with making decisions about how to rate credits. Lenders are therefore naturally reluctant to maker decisions based on guidance until they see it actually implemented on the ground.