国际英语新闻：Treasury Secretary: U.S. gov't to support small banks

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Obama administration will use repayment proceeds expected from large banks to support additional capital infusions for smaller banks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday.

    "Using the proceeds of the repayments we expect to receive from some of the largest banks, we plan to re-open the application window for banks with total assets under 500 million dollars," Geithner said in remarks to the annual meeting of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

    The window for applying or reapplying, and the deadline for small banks to form a holding company to participate in the program will be open for six months, according to the secretary.

    Of the more than 8,300 banks in America, 92 percent are small or mid-sized banks, with assets below one billion dollars.

    "Community banks have accounted for more than one third of the dollar volume of loans to small businesses -- the businesses which in turn have accounted for the majority of new jobs created annually over the past decade," Geithner said.

    At a time when many Americans have lost faith in the financial system as a whole, a recent Gallup poll found that 69 percent of customers have a lot of confidence in small and medium size banks, he said.

    "Collectively, you are a source of strength and resilience for the U.S. financial system. And you will play a critical role in laying the foundation for economic recovery," Geithner said.

    The announcement came after the Obama administration last week released results of the "stress tests" conducted on the nation's 19 largest banks.

    The tests found that 10 of the banks needed to raise a total of about 75 billion dollars in new capital to survive a worsening recession. The remaining nine had enough capital to withstand a deeper recession.

    As a whole, the banking sector was not as bad as many analysts had feared, according to the results