Honey I shrunk the TARP

NEW YORK, Feb 17, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE)

The Ethisphere Institute, a non-partisan research think tank, announced today the establishment of the Ethisphere TARP Index, a new financial monitor that tracks the U.S. Federal Government's return on its investments under the capital purchase portion of its Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP). Weekly reports detailing performance and drivers will be published at http://ethisphere.com/ethisphere-tarp-index-report/.

Results for Week Ended February 13, 2009

When markets closed on Friday, the aggregate Ethisphere TARP Index was down approximately 44 percent or $86.5 billion out of the original investment principal of $195.5 billion.

"While certain investments were necessary in order to prevent financial calamity in the fall of 2008, many of the more than 400 investments in the TARP program are with companies with far stronger balance sheets and operating results," said Douglas Allen, the lead research analyst behind the Ethisphere TARP Index. "Therefore, investment return statistics under the Ethisphere TARP Index are presented both on the comparative basis of including and excluding the calamity investments to provide a more accurate cross-section of the Treasury's investing campaign."

Excluding 'calamity investments' in Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, the Adjusted Ethisphere TARP Index was down approximately 29 percent or $27.6 billion out of the original investment principal of $95.5 billion.


The following rankings are based on the Adjusted Ethisphere TARP Index.

Top performers on an absolute basis as of Friday, February 13, 2009 include: 1. Morgan Stanley - gain of $2.6 billion or 26.3 percent 2. BB&T Corporation - gain of $64.0 million or 2.0 percent 3. 1st Source Corporation - gain of $32.8 million or 29.5 percent

Top performers on a relative basis as of Friday, February 13, 2009 include: 1. Central Valley Community Bancorp - gain of 45.9 percent or $3.2 million 2. Great Southern Bancorp - gain of 35.3 percent or $20.4 million 3. First Community Bank Corp. of America - gain of 33.9 percent or $3.6 million
Worst performers on an absolute basis as of Friday, February 13, 2009 include: 1. US Bancorp - loss of $3.7 billion or 56.1 percent 2. SunTrust Banks - loss of $3.6 billion or 74.8 percent 3. PNC Financial Services - loss of $3.0 billion or 39.5 percent

Worst performers on a relative basis as of Friday, February 13, 2009 include: 1. Huntington Bancshares - loss of 81.5 percent or $1.1 billion 2. Webster Financial Corp. - loss of 76.1 percent or $304.5 million 3. SunTrust Banks - loss of 74.8 percent or $3.6 billion

Methodology
In addition to the aggregate investment basis costs and current valuation of investments under TARP's capital purchase program, the Ethisphere TARP Index also tracks individual TARP investments. The methodology is based on the cumulative total of public and private companies' value, as well as interest set to have been received by The U.S. Treasury.