Valley National to repurchase $125.7M shares

Valley National gets approval to buy back $125.7 million in shares

• On 4:15 pm EDT, Wednesday September 16, 2009

WAYNE, N.J. (AP) -- Regional bank Valley National Bancorp said Wednesday it received approval from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to buy back 125,000 of the 225,000 shares of its preferred stock held by the Treasury as part of the TARP capital purchase program.

Valley National expects to buy back the shares on Friday and pay about $125.7 million.

Valley repurchased 75,000 shares on June 3 and after the current buyback it will have repaid $200 million of $300 million in shares issued to the Treasury under the program during November 2008.

The Treasury has provided billions of dollars to more than 600 financial institutions from the TARP through the capital purchase program.