Treasury: No Decision Yet On Bank Stock Warrants

MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department and the nation's largest banks are still negotiating what price the government should receive for stock warrants that represent the banks' final ties to the $700 billion bailout program.

Treasury Department spokeswoman Meg Reilly said Friday that the announcement is expected no earlier than Monday.

The department also formally acknowledged that it had received $68 billion in repayments of bailout funds on Wednesday. The largest amounts were $25 billion from JPMorgan Chase & Co., and $10 billion each from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

The stock warrants allow Treasury to buy the banks' stock at a fixed price at some future date.

Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry lobbying group, said the negotiations with Treasury had taken longer than expected.

That's partly because the value of the underlying bank stock has fluctuated during the financial crisis. Treasury has wanted more money for the warrants it holds than the banks have been willing to pay.