The Treasury Department has made the first payments from the $700-billion bailout fund, a total of $125-billion in stock purchases from nine major financial institutions. The money is intended to inject fresh capital into the nation's banks as a way to encourage them to resume more normal lending. A Treasury report shows that the biggest payments, $25-billion apiece, went to Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo (which we will soon get to know better upon completing its takeover of Wachovia). Also familiar to Floridian eyes are such participating institutions as SunTrust, Regions, Capital One and Fifth Third, among others.

Here's a list (and more details available here) of the banks, so far, that are part of the bailout distribution program. Note some get billions, and others millions, depending mostly on size:

Bank                                 Bailout Amount
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch $25-billion 
Bank of New York Mellon           $3-billion 
BB&T                                          $3.1-billion 
Capital One                                $3.55-billion 
Citigroup                                   $25-billion 
City National                            $395-million 
Comerica                                  $2.25-billion 
Fifth Third                                 $3.45-billion 
First Horizon National              $866-million 
First Niagara                            $186-million 
Goldman Sachs                          $10-billion 
Home Federal Financial             $25-million 
Huntington Bancshares            $1.4-billion 
JP Morgan Chase                      $25-billion 
KeyCorp                                    $2.5-billion 
Marshall & Ilsley                        $1.7-billion 
Morgan Stanley                         $10-billion 
Northern Trust                        $1.5-billion 
Old National Bancorp               $150-million 
PNC                                           $7.7-billion 
Provident Bankshares              N/A 
Redding Bank                          $17-million 
Regions Financial                    $3.5-billion 
Saigon National                       $1.2-billion 
State Street                            $2-billion 
SunTrust                                  $3.5-billion 
UCBH Holdings                          $298-million 
Umpqua                                  $214-million 
Valley National                        $330-million 
Washington Federal               $200-million 
Wells Fargo                             $25-billion 
Zions Bancorp                        $1.4-billion

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According to an AP story, Treasury officials informed representatives of non-publicly traded banks, a group that covers about 6,000 of the nation's 8,500 banks, that they will also be able to participate in the program. Officials said they are moving to modify the contracts so that institutions without publicly traded stock would be able to submit applications.

The government also is being petitioned by a number of other industries, from auto companies to insurance firms, in a bid to get a part of the $700 billion bailout package. Here's my lighter-side take on the growing line of industries clamoring for a piece of the bailout.

-- Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist

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