TARP funds boost refinancing - Business First of Buffalo:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
million that got in federal TARP funds is contributing to a surgre in mortgage refinancing and auto the company’s CEO said. “We’re havingg a boom in mortgage refinancings. Volumwe is the largest I can recall in the last five saidPeter Humphrey, president of Five Star a subsidiary of Warsaw-based Financial Institutions. Indirecrt auto financing activity also ismarkedluy higher, Humphrey said. “Volume is more than 100 percent compared to March he said.
“Contrary to what you hear, peoplse in this region are buying Maybe sales are offa bit, but not as much as Every dollar the bank receives via the Troublexd Asset Relief Program – the $700 billionn plan rolled out last year to help bankzs expand lending and ease the creditr crisis – is leveraged 10 Humphrey said. Western New York. TARP benefits the bank, the taxpayerws and the economy,” he said. At , whicbh was approved for $11.09 million but turned down the specialgovernmenf loan, President and CEO David Nasca said “mortgag applications are three times what we saw in the first quarte r last year. About 85 percentf is in refinancings.
” Nasca said applications are splir 50/50 between 15- and 20-year mortgages on one hand and 30-yeadr mortgages on the other. He said the tremendous upsurges at Evans Bank especially inrefinancing applications, probably is typical of what other Wester New York bank lenders are he said. Current rates are around 5 percent or loweerfor 30-year mortgages, and 4.85 percent or under for 15-yeafr mortgages.
Nicholas Buscaglia, M&T Bank group vice president and regional managerr forresidential mortgages, said his bank is witnessinyg a “significant spike” in refi activity which had been anticipatex when rates on 30-year mortgages fell to 5 percent or M&T also began seeing housing purchases rise in recentf weeks, a time when homebuyinvg usually picks up anyway. TARP funds, rather than being targeted to banks’ specific financial products, are used to strengtheh balance sheets and free up credit to make moreloansw available.
, which received $600 millioh in exchange for giving the government shared of preferred stock and will use TARP moneyfor “the entire spectrum of including home equity, small business, middle-market dealds – all of them, Presidentt Mark Czarnecki said. “Our strategy hasn’rt changed. We will continue to market loans as aggressivelas before,” he said. , parenty of First Niagara Bank, receivexd $184 million. President and CEO John Koelme recently stated that the funds helpefd the bankoriginate $814.7 million in new loansz and lines of credit during the fourthg quarter.
That was more than four times the capitap providedthrough TARP, and an 18 percenrt increase from the third he said. Most of the growth was on the commerciao side, he stated. Business loanes and line-of-credit advances totaled $536 millio - up from $438 million in the previous Commercial mortgagesrose $60 million.