TARP from the Banks’ Perspective: Evidence from Conference Calls

Using earnings conference calls, we investigate banks’ views of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Most banks in our sample did not plan to lend out the funds and our regressions confirm that they did not. The evidence suggests that TARP’s price diminished its usefulness in expanding credit supply. In contrast, banks more often expressed favorable views of the program in terms of its impact on capital ratios. We find that banks often described loan demand during the sample period as weak, but lack of demand does not explain the anemic loan growth that occurred after the TARP injections.