Only one bank serving our county receiving funds from $350 billion TARP program

The U. S. is feverishly spending $350 billion through the Troubled Assets Relief Program in hopes of stabilizing the nation’s faltering economy, but only one bank serving St. Lawrence County is receiving the funds.

Key Bank , which has branches in Ogdensburg, Massena, Gouverneur, Canton, Potsdam, and Winthrop, is selling $2.5 billion in preferred stock and warrants through the TARP program. The 12th largest bank in the nation based on assets, Key is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Details of the TARP financing are available from the U. S. Treasury’s website.

Other than HSBC, which is headquartered in London, England and has branches in Massena, Potsdam, Ogdensburg and Gouverneur, the only other financial institution not based in New York State is Woodforest National Bank. It has been opening branches in Wal-Marts throughout the nation, including those in Massena and Potsdam.

All the rest of our financial institutions are small and local, with headquarters within our county or northern or upstate New York.

North Country Savings and SeaComm Federal Credit Union headquarters are in Canton and Massena, respectively. Community Bank, whose roots are in Canton, is now based in Dewitt. Gouverneur Savings and Loan and Massena Savings and Loan are both hometown institutions. And St. Lawrence Federal Credit Union, is based in Ogdensburg with a branch in Canton.

Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union, which has a Potsdam location, is based in Tupper Lake. Upstate National Bank, with headquarters in Rochester, has branches in Ogdensburg and Lisbon.

According to CNN, the money for the first half of the total $700 billion in TARP funding was allocated for shoring up financial institutions. The program:

• sent checks totaling $168 billion in varying amounts to 116 banks;

• committed another $82 billion to capitalize more banks;

• bought $40 billion in preferred shares of American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) so the troubled insurer could pay off an earlier loan from the Federal Reserve;

• committed $20 billion to back any losses that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York might incur under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility;

• committed to invest $20 billion in Citigroup on top of $25 billion the bank had already received;

• committed $5 billion as a loan loss backstop to Citigroup;

• agreed to loan $13.4 billion to GM and Chrysler to get them through the next few months.