Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs assured members of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee that they are extending credit with some of the funds from the Capital Purchase Program (CPP). Jon Campbell, regional banking president of Wells Fargo, told the panel at a hearing last week that the CPP money “will enable Wells Fargo to offer appropriately priced credit at a time when several sectors of the financial industry have shut down…. We intend to expand lending in all of our markets.”
Anna Finucane, global marketing and corporate affairs executive at BofA, noted that “banks can deploy Treasury funds by lending or engaging in other capital-intensive forms of intermediation. As with any other bank, Bank of America has every incentive to do so, as lending is our core business and a crucial component of our business.” And JPMorgan Chase is using its CPP funds “among others things, to expand the flow of credit,” Barry L. Zubrow, evp and chief risk officer at JPMorgan Chase, told the senators.