More US banks seek to raise funds

Morgan Chase owes the US government $25bn

JPMorgan Chase and American Express have become the latest US banks to announce share issues as they aim to raise funds to repay the government.

JPMorgan said it planned to raise $5bn (£3bn) to help repay the $25bn it was awarded from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) rescue plan for lenders.

At the same time, American Express said it hoped to raise $500m to start to repay the $3.4bn it has received.

The largest 19 US banks have been given $229bn under the Tarp scheme so far.

This is out of the total $700bn that was available at the launch of the programme.

Industry-wide moves

JPMorgan Chase and American Express' announcements follow similar share issue plans to start repaying the government announced by BB&T, US Bancorp, Capital One Financial and Bank of New York Mellon.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs this week sold $1.9bn worth of shares in Chinese bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

All these banks last month passed the so called "stress tests" held by the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve, which determined that they do not require any more Tarp funds to improve their capital base.

By contrast, 10 of the 19 largest US banks that have gained Tarp funding failed the tests, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

These have also announced share issues, but in their case it is to strengthen their finances rather than pay back the government.

The Fed has ruled that banks must prove they have sufficient financial reserves before they can start to repay their Tarp funds.