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Bank dividends may soon be a thing of the past if the Federal Reserve has its way.  The Fed is urging Wells Fargo and dozens of banks getting TARP bailout funds to consider future loan losses and the need to bolster capital before paying dividends to shareholders.

This urging came in a letter from the Fed to its regional supervisors.  The letter, made public Thursday, said banks  “should reduce or eliminate dividends” when earnings decline or the economic outlook deteriorates.

Some banks resisted dividend cuts even as regulators grew increasingly concerned about their ability to withstand losses.

The Fed told banks in November that it was concerned they might not be using the rescue funds appropriately. Wells Fargo, US Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group are among banks that have maintained their dividends as loan losses surged and earnings plummeted.

On Monday JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest US bank, slashed its dividend by 87 percent to 5 cents from 38 cents.

An earlier draft of the Fed’s letter, described by two people who saw it, urged banks to put their capital into making new loans rather than paying dividends. That stipulation was dropped from the final version of the letter.

The letter made public said each bank should “consider the potential impact on its earnings and capital base from current and prospective economic conditions.”

Banks also were warned to “inform the Federal Reserve reasonably in advance of declaring or paying a dividend that exceeds earnings for the period,” according to the letter. Such a requirement has been less strictly enforced in recent years, Shaffer said.

When Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. sought additional aid after getting $25 billion each in October, the government agreed on the condition that they cut their dividends to a penny a share. The two banks got an additional $20 billion each from the $700-billion program.

Wells Fargo, which took $25 billion of TARP funds, has maintained its dividend. So have Pittsburgh-based PNC, which took $7.6 billion; Minneapolis-based US Bancorp, which received $6.6 billion; and McLean, Virginia-based Capital One Financial, which got $3.6 billion.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which got $10 billion of TARP funds, is still paying a quarterly dividend equivalent to 35 cents a share. Morgan Stanley, which also got $10 billion, pays 27 cents a share.

Spokesmen for Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and PNC declined to comment. “These funds are being used in a manner consistent with promoting economic growth,” Capital One spokesman Julie Rakes said.

The Fed’s new guidance may provide cover to bank CEOs who know they need to cut their dividends to preserve capital, and have resisted doing so for fear of upsetting shareholders or conveying a sign of weakness to depositors.

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February 19,  2009 – The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP disbursed $294 billion to 317 financial institutions by January 23rd, yet it still isn’t clear whether the lenders are using the money to do more lending or, indeed, what they are doing with it, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The GAO recommended broadening the scope of monthly TARP surveys to “further improve the integrity, transparency, and accountability of the program and more clearly articulate and communicate a strategic vision.”

The Treasury Department released a Feb. 4 statement indicating that senior executives at institutions receiving exceptional financial recovery assistance will be limited to $500,000 in annual compensation. The executives, however, can receive restricted stock that vests when principal and interest on government debt has been fully repaid.

The number of executives subject to clawback provisions has been increased to 25 from five, while shareholders must approve senior executive compensation. In addition, a ban on golden parachute payments will be extended to the top 10 executives from the top five banks, and the next 25 executives will be limited to golden parachute payments of one year’s salary.

In testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services earlier this month, American Bankers Association President and Chief Executive Officer Edward L. Yingling called on the Treasury to fulfill the TARP commitment to community banks.

He endorsed TARP’s specific citation of S-corporations — which have disproportionately been impacted by the current economic crisis even though their role was limited. He noted that the Treasury began allowing S-corporations to issue subordinated debt for TARP investments — extending TARP’s reach by 2,500 institutions.

Yingling also called for an end to the disparity between TARP terms for S-corporations that are stand-alone banks versus those for other institutions. He specifically recommended provisions that would enable wider participation by the nation’s mutual banks.

At the same hearing, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer John F. Bovenzi supported equal TARP access for community banks — institutions with less than $1 billion in assets. So far, Bovenzi noted, 1,600 community financial institutions have applied to the program.

“The goal of providing government support is to ensure that such cut-backs and adjustments are made mostly in areas such as dividend policy and management compensation, rather than in the volume of prudent bank lending,” Bovenzi, who is also the acting CEO of IndyMac Federal Bank said.

But mortgage bankers want to see TARP funds redirected as originally proposed – buying non-performing assets off bank balance sheets.

“Above all else, we believe it is important to return TARP to its original purpose, which was to purchase non-performing assets off banks’ balance sheets,” Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO John A. Courson testified.

A $372 million TARP dividend was declared and paid by Wells Fargo last month, the San Francisco firm announced. Wells said it has originated or commited to almost $500 billion in loans since credit began contracting 18 months ago.

Bank of America announced that it paid a $402 million dividend to the U.S. Treasury on its $45 billion in outstanding government investments. Government investments included $15 billion in TARP funds, $10 billion as part of its agreement to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and $20 billion that was provided by the government to help facilitate the acquisition of Merrill.

B-of-A claimed $115 billion in new credit extended during the fourth quarter.

In an interview with CNBC earlier this month, B-of-A CEO Ken Lewis said he hoped to payoff TARP investments within three years. He indicated that the Charlotte, N.C.-based institution doesn’t expect to seek any further TARP investments.

CitiGroup reported this month that it had deployed $45 billion in TARP capital so far, including $26 billion in residential originations, $6 billion in credit card lending and $3 billion in personal and business loans.

“We have already approved $36.5 billion in initiatives backed by TARP capital that are consistent with the objectives and spirit of the Treasury program,” Citi CEO Vikram Pandit said in the statement. “And, as part of our ongoing business, Citi continues to lend to consumers and businesses in the United States, where we extended approximately $75 billion in new loans during the fourth quarter.”

More than $300 million in TARP investments in Sterling Financial Corp. will be utilized for new and enhanced lending initiatives, a press release last week said. Sterling said residential lending subsidiary Golf Savings Bank was allocated $25 million, while commercial bank subsidiary Sterling Savings Bank was allocated $208 million to increase “lending activity to creditworthy borrowers.” The rest of the capital was retained by Sterling.

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Federal banking regulators said last week in a new report that nearly one-third of outstanding mortgages were approved with less than full documentation. Around one-fifth had credit scores below 660, and more than 90 percent were serviced by a third party. The findings came from the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision, which jointly surveyed the 14 largest mortgage servicers.

Banks surveyed were Bank of America, Citibank, First Horizon, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, National City, U.S. Bank, Wachovia and Wells Fargo. Thrifts surveyed were Countrywide, IndyMac, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia FSB and Washington Mutual. All of these thrifts have either failed or been acquired since last summer.

The respondents serviced 34,877,891 mortgages for $6.1 trillion as of Sept. 30, 2008. Their combined portfolios accounted for around 90 percent of first mortgages serviced by banks and thrifts and more than 60 percent of all U.S. mortgages.

The servicers owned less than 10 percent of the loans they serviced, based on the number of loans outstanding. Those loans were owned by third parties through residential mortgage-backed securitizations and loan sales. The share of loans serviced for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was 62 percent.

Around nine percent of the loans serviced by the surveyed institutions were subprime. Borrowers with credit scores below 620 were considered subprime.

Alt-A loans amounted to 10 percent, the report said. Alt-A included borrowers with scores between 620 and 659. Low- and no-documentation loans made up 30 percent of loans serviced by the institutions.

Jumbo mortgages amounted to seven percent.

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Several mortgage restructuring programs are beginning to emerge in the wake of the new Obama Administration housing initiative.  Fannie Mae says it is working closely with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America to establish a pilot mortgage restructuring program for distressed borrowers, according to the now-nationalized bundler of residential mortgages. The program involves restructuring mortgages to achieve an affordable payment. Neighborhood Assistance says it is a non-profit, community advocacy and homeownership organization.

About 478,000 Wachovia, including those with pick-a-pay loans, will be eligible for a streamlined modification program launched this week by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wachovia’s acquirer. Eligible borrowers primarily include those who are delinquent or are likely to become delinquent. The possible modifications include extended terms, interest-rate reductions and temporary interest abatements.

Fifth Third Bancorp., which reported a $2.1 billion fourth-quarter loss, said in its earnings report that it had modified $218 million in loans during the period. Restructured loans stood at $574 million on Dec. 31.

Fitch Ratings recently released a report indicating proposed bankruptcy cramdown legislation would probably not trigger immediate downgrades to residential mortgage-backed securities if it were passed. But Fitch noted the devil is in the details and it will issue a more conclusive statement once the final terms are hashed out.

Nearly one-third of Fitch-rated prime and Alt-A RMBS — where bankruptcy losses are not allocated as typical credit losses and cramdown risks are amplified — are more likely to face senior bond downgrades. Those deals, which have balances totaling $223 billion, are subject to carve-out provisions. Risk is more limited on over two-thirds of prime and Alt-A securitizations.

Several mortgage-related trade groups — including the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition and the Mortgage Bankers Association — sent a joint letter last week to U.S. House Representatives John Conyers and Lamar Smith opposing bankruptcy cramdown legislation. They cited H.R. 200 and H.R. 225, which would benefit mortgage fraud participants.

“The housing market is already contracting and enactment of cramdown legislation would make things even worse by injecting more risk into the mortgage market, making it harder and more costly for people to buy and sell homes,” the letter said. “Permitting cram down in bankruptcy would encourage many people to file for bankruptcy first and would undermine other efforts to work-out or modify troubled loans.

Meanwhile, the so-called MFI-Mod Squad was launched last week to expose illegal loan-modification firms and their operators, a statement last week said. Delinquent borrowers can find comments about scam companies on MFI’s Web site, while they can also obtain help investigating unscrupulous loan modification companies.

An alliance was announced this week between MFI parent MFI-Miami and the modification firm Loan Solutions. MFI-Miami will perform forensic loan audits to exploit mistakes by mortgage lenders so Loan Solutions can leverage the compliance errors to obtain better modification terms on behalf of borrowers.

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