US banks start to repay bailout funding
It has been revealed that US banks are set to repay a total of $68 billion to the US government as part repayment of government funding over the last few months. The 10 banks in question, JP Morgan, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, BB&T Corporation, Capital One Financial, Morgan Stanley, State Street and US Bancorp are all very keen to start to repay their share of bailout financing in order to unshackle some of the handcuffs attached by the US government and US regulators.
Many of the US banks have been trying to repay part of their debt for some time but until now the US government has been very wary of reducing their financial strength in the short to medium term. The fact that the government is set to allow repayments to begin is seen by many as a sign that the worst could be over for the US financial sector. Whether this growing confidence in US financial sector will transfer to the consumer sector and overseas very much remains to be seen.
The US government and US economy led us into the recession and it looks as though they could very well lead us out.
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