On Oct. 28, the nation's largest, capital-strapped financial institutions lined up to accept assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a component of the U.S. Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program (CPP). The equity investments ranged from $2 billion at State Street Corporation of Boston to $25 billion at CitiGroup Inc. of New York, JPMorgan Chase & Co. of New York and Wells Fargo & Company of San Francisco.

None of these transactions directly affected Mississippi, but more than 20 privately-held financial institutions received TARP relief Nov. 14, and one, Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., is a major player in the Mississippi banking community. It sold $3.5 billion in preferred shares in the company to the U.S. Treasury.

"This government investment program is an important step in supporting consumers and businesses that will drive economic recovery and growth," said Dowd Ritter, Regions' chairman, president. and CEO. "These funds will strengthen our Tier 1 capital to approximately 10.5 percent and enable us to continue lending where our high standards of credit quality, full pricing and depository relationships can be met."

No thanks

No Mississippi-based financial institution has yet to participate in TARP. Three of them - BancorpSouth Inc. of Tupelo, Hancock Holding Company of Gulfport and Citizens Holding Company of Philadelphia - made their decision public, taking the chance to tout their financial stability.

"After careful deliberation, BancorpSouth's board of directors and senior management have decided that we will not participate in the government's funding program. At the same time, we support the intent of the program, understand its potential benefits and are respectful of those institutions that are participating," said Aubrey Patterson, chairman and CEO of BancorpSouth.

"BancorpSouth is a well-capitalized, strong performing institution with high quality assets in its loan portfolio. We are confident that our company is well positioned to work through the challenges of this difficult economic period. In our opinion, it is clearly in the best interests of our shareholders to continue with our strong, conservative capital management plan, without resorting to the inclusion of government capital."

Hancock reports it remained "extremely well-capitalized" as of September 30, 2008, with a total risked-based capital ratio of 11.90 percent.

"After very thorough evaluation and analysis, Hancock's board of directors and senior management have concluded that declining government funding safeguards the best interests of our shareholders and the company," said Hancock Holding CEO Carl J. Chaney.