Fifty-Five Banks Qualify as TARP Turkeys

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Fifty-five banks failed to pay dividends to the U.S. Treasury in November on preferred equity investments made by the government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), according to a recent report by SNL Financial.

The banks involved received $5.06 billion, or slightly less than 4%, of the $133.69 billion that the Treasury had paid out under the TARP's Capital Purchase Program, as of Nov. 18. The 55 banks missing their dividend payments represents an increase from a total of 33 banks that failed to make similar payments, which were due in August, in the prior quarter, according to SNL's report. Linus Wilson, a professor at the University of Louisiana whose has been an outspoken critic of the TARP Program, recently published a similar report.