Under an informal agreement with regulators, Green Bankshares Inc. in Greeneville, Tenn., has suspended dividend payments, even those owed to the Treasury Department.
The $2.45 billion-asset company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it "informally committed" to the Federal Reserve Board not to pay dividends to any of its shareholders. Green said in a press release that it had suspended dividend payments on the $72.3 million of cumulative perpetual preferred stock it received in late 2008 from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Green is also deferring interest payments on $88.6 million of trust-preferred securities.
Green said that skipping payments would save $5.1 million a year. The company also said that its bank had informally agreed with regulators to maintain a leverage ratio of 10% and a total risk-based capital ratio of 14%. Those ratios were 10.78% and 14.8% at Sept. 30.
