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Tim Massad, Treasury's acting assistant secretary for financial stability, said "We're pleased that the report acknowledges that the nation's large banks are much stronger today as a result of the actions taken by Treasury." Taxpayers will recoup the full amount invested in banks, around $245 billion, and will make an additional $20 billion or so in profit, Massad said in a telephone interview Thursday. He said the quickened share sales were the best approach to follow. Delaying the banks' stock offerings and repayments "carried a lot of risk with it," said Massad, because it's hard to know what the market for bank shares is going to be like later on, and holding back could dampen investor confidence. "We pushed them to raise as much private capital as they could," he said. Robert Stickler, a spokesman for Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, said the bank's wanting to issue stock "all at once rather than in stages was because of market conditions." He rejected the idea that his bank might have pressured the regulators for a quicker exit. The bank's primary motivation was to remove the stigma of being a TARP recipient, Stickler said, and there also was concern that the restraints on executive pay were making it hard for them to keep executives. The Federal Reserve said in written comments on the new report that, while it led the process of reviewing banks' repayment proposals, it consulted with all the agencies. "All agreed with the final decision to allow each" bank to repay, the Fed said. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency disagreed with the report's finding that the bank review process was inconsistent. The flexibility to "deviate somewhat" from the requirements was necessary and produced positive results, the agency said. PNC, Wells Fargo and Citigroup said the TARP repayments allowed them to focus on their businesses and were in the best interests of taxpayers and shareholders.
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