Home Purchase Loans Down Among Top TARP Recipients

" The majority of 21 top financial institutions that have received government funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program overall lent more in January than they did a month earlier, according to a survey released this week by the U.S. Treasury Department. The reported data show that mortgage originations “rose significantly in January, as lower interest rates fueled a strong demand to refinance home mortgages,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a media statement. "