Five banks repay U.S. for bailouts

WASHINGTON -- —  Five banks have repaid millions of dollars they received from the government’s $700-billion financial bailout pot, the Obama administration said Thursday.

The Treasury Department, which oversees the bank bailout program, said the banks had returned a total of $353 million.

The banks are Iberiabank Corp. of Lafayette, La.; Bank of Marin Bancorp of Novato, Calif.; Old National Bancorp. of Evansville, Ind.; Signature Bank of New York; and Centra Financial Holdings Inc. of Morgantown, W.Va.

They were the first banks to repay the government, wanting to escape the increasingly tough restrictions placed on participants in the rescue program.

In addition to the $353 million, the banks paid the government a total of $5.4 million in dividends, Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams said.