Treasury Department to Sell Investment in 12 Banks

The Treasury Department will auction off its stakes in a dozen more banks as it works to aggressively wind down the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Treasury has already held three auctions, including one in June that recouped $204 million of its initial $224 million investment. It plans to hold several more auctions this summer.

The agency also recently notified roughly 200 banks, or almost two-thirds of the banks left in the Tarp, that it would package the preferred shares of multiple banks into pools and then auction those off. The first series of pooled auctions is expected to begin in the fall.

The Treasury said Monday that it expects to auction the preferred stock and subordinated debt for First Western Financial in Denver; CBS Banc-Corp. in Russellville, Ala.; Exchange Bank in Santa Rosa, Calif.; Market Street Bancshares in Mount Vernon, Ill.; Fidelity Financial in Wichita, Kan.; Marquette National in Chicago; Premier Financial Bancorp (PFBI) in Huntington, W. Va.; Diamond Bancorp in Washington, Mo.; Park Bancorp. in Madison, Wis.; Trinity Capital in Los Alamos, N.M.; First Community Financial in Joliet, Ill.; and Commonwealth Bancshares in Louisville, Ky.

The 12 banks received a combined $322 million from December 2008 to December 2009 under Tarp. The Treasury said that a modified Dutch auction should take place on July 23.