De acordo com a Casa Branca nada de estranho se passa:

Q - Mr. Chairman, what about -- what do you say to critics of the TARP, the $700 billion rescue package, who are concerned about banks paying dividends with this money that they're getting from the federal government, with taxpayer money, essentially?

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, I'd say two things. First of all, the money that has gone out from the TARP just went out Tuesday, and only to a very small select number of banks. So there's not a lot of evidence of anybody doing anything with that money. So as far as I know, we don't know what banks are doing with that money.

Entretanto:

Directors at National Penn Bancshares Inc. have authorized management to apply for up to $200 million from the federal government's rescue plan for banks. (...)

Also at Wednesday's board meeting, directors agreed to increase National Penn's quarterly dividend by 1.5 percent.

The new dividend of 17.25 cents a share will be paid Nov. 17 to shareholders of record Nov. 1. The previous quarterly dividend was 17 cents a share.