JPMorgan, others line up to throw off TARP yoke

By Joseph A. Giannone and Mark Felsenthal

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co and several other banks eager to escape the restrictions and stigma linked to government bailout funds may get the chance to do so in the next few weeks.

Regulators are talking to big banks that want to repay funds received under the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, a Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday.

No announcements on returning funds will come until around June 8, the official added. The Fed official spoke on condition of anonymity because the application process is continuing.

Earlier on Tuesday, JPMorgan Chief Executive James Dimon told shareholders he expects regulators will let a few strong banks repay TARP funds within weeks.

Dimon made it clear that he was eager to escape strict regulations on compensation and other areas for TARP participants. In particular, he called restrictions under the program on banks hiring foreign-born workers "a complete and utter disgrace."

Similar concerns have been voiced by other TARP recipients Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, which like JPMorgan recently submitted applications seeking permission to repay TARP funds, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

"It's not going to be a big deal stock-price wise, but it is a huge deal competitively that they can use to their advantage," said Greg Donaldson, director of portfolio strategy at Donaldson Capital Management in Evansville, Indiana.

Repaying the government funds will "take the handcuffs off the management of these companies," agreed Brad Hintz, analyst with Sanford C Bernstein in New York.

"What I've told my clients is: 'You want to be the first one out of TARP and you certainly don't want to be the last one,'" Hintz said.

JPMorgan shares closed down 3.9 percent at $35.81 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

"There are so many banks talking about repaying TARP that it's already priced in," Donaldson said.

Bank of America Corp, the largest U.S. bank, which has said it hopes to fully repay TARP funds within the next couple of years, priced an offering of about 800 million shares, raising some $8 billion after the market closed.

The stock sale may help the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender raise capital, after regulators told it to bolster its finances following a government "stress test" of its ability to handle a deep recession.

TAKING DOWN TARP

Last October, the Treasury stepped in with $125 billion of bailout funds for nine of the largest U.S. banks, part of a plan to stabilize a system rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Regulators wanted banks to have enough capital to lend during one of the worst recessions since the 1930s.