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As the country struggles to pull out of the recession, banks continue to grapple with the costs resulting from the ongoing stress in the financial markets.

Among those costs is an FDIC requirement that lenders prepay annual insurance premiums to support the agency’s Deposit Insurance Fund, or DIF.

Byron Bexley, chairman and CEO of locally based TexStar National Bank, says the three-year premium prepayment mandate, or assessment, has led to “sticker shock” at some local institutions.

However, according to the FDIC, the premium prepayment strategy is necessary because the DIF’s cash reserves have been rapidly declining due to insurance payouts in the wake of multiple bank failures in recent years.

Tags: Costs, Depositinsurance Costs

McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp said net credit card charge-offs in the U.S. were 9.68 percent on an annual basis in April, down from 10.87 percent in March, according to a regulatory filing.

The 30-day-plus delinquency rate was 5.07, compared with 5.30 percent in March.

Charge-offs, which are loans written off as uncollectable, dropped in Capital One’s auto finance division to 1.75 percent on an annualized basis, down from 2.10 percent in March.

Charge-offs on international cards were down to an annualized 8.60 percent from 9.40 percent with a 30-day-plus delinquency rate of 6.28 percent.

Capital One (NYSE: COF) purchased Chevy Chase Bank in early 2009 and is going to officially re-brand Chevy Chase’s 247 branches in the fall. C

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Tags: Capital, Credit Card

Celebrating two years as a publicly traded company, Bethesda-based American Capital Agency Corp. has been picked to ring Monday’s closing bell at the NASDAQ exchange in Manhattan.

Malon Wilkus, CEO and chairman, and Gary Kain, chief investment officer, will preside over the event.

“Since its initial public offering in May 2008 at $20 per share, American Capital Agency (NASDAQ:AGNC) has paid a total of $9.06 per share in dividends and generated a total return of 89 percent for its shareholders,” said Wilkus in a statement. “AGNC’s performance is a testament to the company’s focus on balancing the generation of attractive risk-adjusted returns and the preservation of book value.”

The ceremony will begin at 3:50 p.m. Eastern Time.

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Tags: American Capital, Bell