A minority of candidates, with leftover money or inadequate records, must repay funds.
But there is a better idea: Lawrence J. Lasser, the chief executive of Putnam, could repay fund shareholders out of his own pocket.
The benefits are obvious: The bank has the strongest balance sheet among its rivals and is the only big lender to repay funds borrowed from the government in 1998 and 1999.
"It's a partial fix but not a real fix because you still have a chairman who has acknowledged his obligation to repay funds but is given six months to do so," said Robert Curry, a lawyer for Tweedy, Browne, an investment firm that owns about 15percentt of Hollinger International's stock.
Earlier in the day at the company meeting Citi's chief executive Vikram Pandit said the company aims to repay funds from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program with interest, according to TradeTheNews.com.
"Misrepresentations by the school regarding the school's education program or its financial or administrative capability, including the school's placement services or the quality of the school's facilities, faculty, or equipment do not relieve [the borrower] of the obligation to repay funds advanced by the lender on the student loans," the Education Department said in its unsigned letter.
The haste with which banks are repaying funds is causing unease in political circles.
Brazil is following the example of Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy, in repaying funds provided by the United States Treasury to ease the peso crisis of 1994-95.
The government is set to get $68 billion back from the banking sector as the first group of 10 firms repays funds received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
As it stands now, the government is set to get $68 billion back from the banking sector as the first group of 10 firms repays funds received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
