Was there a financial need, and was it real, perceived, or fictional?
Was there a financial panic at the bank or just a bunch of pecuniary lemmings running off the cliff and now that they have hit the water, they do not want anything to do with federal control and want to give back the money?

It immediately reminded me of news I had read on Powerline before. Namely the fact that the heads of nine top banks were brought into a room and held there hostage until they signed agreeing to receive TARP funds.

…We have it on good authority that some of the bankers, at least, were told that they would not be allowed to leave the room until they signed documents that were presented to them at that meeting. [...]

The document is unambiguous: “We plan to announce the program tomorrow–and–that your nine firms will be the initial participants. … This is a combined program (bank liability guarantee and capital purchase). Your firms need to agree to both. We don’t believe it is tenable to opt out because doing so would leave you vulnerable and exposed. If a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware that your regulator will require it in any circumstance.” So the regulators’ independence had already been compromised.

Emphasis mine. More people should be shouting this from the highest hilltops. If the news media wasn’t in the tank for Obama I would say those nine men should have called their own press conference on live television. Publicly out everything they had been told in that meeting. Sadly, that’s not possible anymore.

Fox Business

Signature Bank President and CEO Joseph DiPaolo said that terms imposed on TARP-funded banks “adversely affected our business model and it became apparent that we should return these funds to the Treasury. The return of these funds allows us to continue to execute our business model, which includes the successful recruitment and retention of highly talented banking professionals throughout the metropolitan New York area.”

Obviously the rhetoric about limiting executive compensation made an impression. I am surprised though that the banks have been allowed to return the money. According to the New York Times, the bank executives should give thanks to someone in Congress that slipped in a rule change to TARP.