Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street: April 17

Genworth's TARP Tardiness

Pity poor Genworth Financial(GNW Quote). All the phony banks are getting bailout money except Genworth.

Genworth's stock fell nearly 20% on Monday after the insurer announced it is abandoning an effort to purchase privately held InterBank because the Treasury Department deemed it too late for the company to be approved for the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Richmond, Va.-based Genworth announced last November its intention to buy the Minnesota-based bank for an undisclosed sum as a means to apply for status as a savings-and-loan holding company and become TARP-eligible. Genworth, once part of General Electric(GE Quote), said its deal to buy InterBank hinged on acceptance into the government program.

Treasury broke the news to Genworth last Thursday before the long holiday weekend, saying its application to become a savings-and-loan holding company had missed the cutoff date. Genworth said its application had not been reviewed in time by the Office of Thrift Supervision as required by Treasury and that the deadline will not be extended.

Making Genworth's collapse all the more painful was the surge in insurance industry stock prices last Wednesday after a report that the Treasury was prepared to give some large life insurers an injection of government aid. The rally sent up shares of MetLife(MET Quote) and Prudential(PRU Quote), mega-insurers that have long had bank holding-company status, as well as Lincoln National(LNC Quote), Hartford Financial(HIG Quote) and Genworth, which jumped on the bank-buying bandwagon during the height of the credit crisis last year.

Despite the selloff in his company's stock, Genworth CEO Michael Fraizer said he remains confident in the company's financial position and that its plan to access TARP funds via the InterBank acquisition was "only one of the strategic levers Genworth has considered."

Really Mike? If you've got another lever to pull, then by all means please tell us, because right now all you are doing is yanking our chain.

In the last year you've slashed the dividend, streamlined expenses and cut down on your risk, and all that's gotten Genworth is a 90% drop in its stock price. If masquerading as a bank in order to beg for bailout bucks isn't your version of a Hail Mary pass downfield, then you have certainly thrown us for a loss.

If you really didn't need the money, then why go through the whole charade in the first place?

Dumb-o-meter score: 90 -- Genworth is worth much less after its TARP insurance policy got canceled.