Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[Mikey Mike]

...they didn't want to accept them...

Why in the world would BB&T accept TARP knowing that the share price would be affected...it clearly would slash 68% of it's dividends...unless they needed the money...there's no motive for it unless it was due to lack of funding...i.e. liquidity issue...what's the motive?

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T said it would reduce the size of its dividend as part of a plan announced Monday to repay the federal government's investment in the company under TARP.

BB&T also will issue $1.5 billion of common stock to be paired with other funds to repay all preferred stock and warrants held by the Treasury, Chief Executive Kelly King said.

With the move, BB&T said it would be one of the first U.S. financial institutions to free itself from TARP. The company reportedly took $3.1 billion in TARP funds.

BB&T's board of directors declared a 15-cent dividend to be paid on common stock in the third quarter, a reduction of 68% from its current quarterly payout of 47 cents a share.

The move to temporarily cut the dividend is intended to preserve about $725 million in capital on an annualized basis, BB&T said.

Current earnings "are not likely to justify our 47-cent dividend in the near term," King said in a statement.

Added King: "Our board carefully weighed many factors in making this decision. We have a long and proud history of paying dividends and understand how important the dividend is to our shareholders, so this decision to temporarily reduce the dividend was extremely difficult."

The reduced dividend will be paid Aug. 3 to shareholders of record as of July 10.

BB& T shares fell 5% to $24.98 in early trade.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bbt-to-slash-dividend-plans-to-repay-tarp-funds