Treasury´s Capital Purchase Program Now Available To Certain Privately Held Financial Institutions - Application Deadline Is December 8, 2008

On October 14, 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury (Treasury) announced the availability of its voluntary Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) Capital Purchase Program (CPP) for qualifying U.S.-controlled banks, savings associations, and certain bank and savings-and-loan holding companies. Through the CPP, the Treasury seeks to enhance the capital bases of domestic financial institutions in an effort to thaw the credit markets and enable the flow of financing to businesses and consumers.

The CPP's first phase, which was oriented toward publicly traded financial institutions, had an application deadline of November 14, 2008. The Treasury has already dispersed more than $150 billion to participating publicly held financial institutions and continues to process such applications.