TCF gives back bailout funds

Bill Cooper
Bill Cooper, Chairman of the board at TCF Financial, says his bank doesn't need bailout money from the federal government, and so TCF is giving it back.
MPR File Photo/Marisa Helms

Federal regulators have allowed Wayzata-based TCF Financial to back out of a program aimed at giving banks more money to lend.

TCF now intends to pay back money it received under the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. TCF received $361 million in TARP funds last fall.

TCF Bank
A TCF bank in St. Paul.
MPR Photo/Steve Mullis

CEO Bill Cooper says the bank didn't need the money. But Cooper says the bank accepted the funding because federal regulators strongly pushed the institution to take it.

Cooper says TCF is not in trouble, but he says many people believe any financial institution that received TARP money is struggling.

Cooper says that negative perception, and the strings attached to the federal money, made him decide to return the funds.

TCF has 448 offices in Minnesota and six other states.