The U.S. Treasury Department has made another investment of 284.7 million dollars in 22 "healthy" banks from the 700-billion-dollar financial bailout package, the department said on Tuesday.

The Treasury said that so far a total of 489 banks in 47 U.S. states and Puerto Rico had received over 197 billion dollars in support. To date, the largest investment was 25 billion dollars and the smallest investment was approximately 1 million dollars.

Among the most recent banks to receive Treasury funding was First Busey Corp. of Urbana, Illinois, which received 100 million dollars. Another nine banks received investments of over 10 million dollars each, while the remaining 12 institutions received less than 10 million dollars each.

According to the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program (CPP), Treasury will purchase up to a total of 250 billion dollars of senior preferred shares from healthy U.S. financial institutions such as those announced on Tuesday.

Institutions that participate in the CPP must comply with restrictions on executive compensation during the period that Treasury holds equity issued through the CPP, and agree to limitations on dividends and stock repurchases.

Banks participating in the CPP will pay the Treasury a five-percent dividend on senior preferred shares for the first five years following the investment and a rate of nine percent per year thereafter.

Banks may repay Treasury under the conditions established in the purchase agreements, and Treasury may sell these shares when market conditions stabilize.

Source:Xinhua