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April 28, 2009

NEW LOCAL: Northwest Savings Bank says no to federal stimulus money

The parent company of Northwest Savings Bank won’t seek federal funds.

The board of directors of Northwest Bancorp Inc. of Warren, parent company of Northwest Savings Bank, has voted not to participate in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Capital Purchase Program or CPP. The CPP is part of the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) approved by Congress to strengthen the nation’s financial system.

After careful review of Northwest’s capital position, the constraints and uncertainties of the CPP, and the overall strength of the company, the board voted not to pursue the matter, said William Wagner, Northwest’s president and chief executive officer.

“We don’t feel we need it,” Wagner said. “Our capital position is strong.”

Also, the board doesn’t like some of the restrictions that could placed on the company, Wagner said.

“One is you can’t increase the dividend paid to shareholders,” Wagner said. “We’re concerned the government could take it beyond that and say we can’t pay a dividend to shareholders.”

Another restriction the board didn’t like the company would not be allowed to buy back its own stock on the open market, Wagner said.

“We buy back stock when we think it’s relatively cheap,” Wagner said.

Northwest’s board has just approved a program to repurchase an additional one million shares of the company’s publicly traded common stock. The authorization is in addition to 273,600 shares remaining to be purchased from a previously announced repurchase program.

Northwest Bancorp. Inc. has $7 billion in assets and it is the holding company for Northwest Savings Bank. The bank operates 168 community banking locations in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Ohio, and Florida, including offices in Crawford County.



Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

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