WesBanco says it completely pulled out from US Treasury’s bank bailout program

WesBanco completes pullout from US Treasury’s TARP

WHEELING, W.Va. — WesBanco Inc. says it’s completely out of the U.S. Treasury’s bank bailout program.

The Wheeling-based company says in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it bought back a warrant for more than 439,000 shares of stock from the Treasury for $950,000.

In September, WesBanco bought back more than $75 million worth of preferred stock sold to the Treasury as part of Troubled Asset Relief Program designed to jump-start lending after the 2008 financial crisis.

At the time, WesBanco said it wanted out of TARP for a variety of reasons, including public perception that it was in financial trouble and because dividends on the preferred shares were hurting profits.

WesBanco has about $5.7 billion in assets and 114 branches in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.