MassMutual Refuses TARP Assistance

By Trevor Thomas

November 10, 2008 at 06:36 AM

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Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company says it will not take part in the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

"MassMutual is well-positioned and has the financial strength and capital necessary to meet the needs of our policyholders and customers despite the current economic environment," MassMutual, Springfield, Mass., says in a statement.

Another large mutual company, New York Life Insurance Company, New York, said last week that it would not participate in TARP, a federal bailout program.

In related news, researchers who polled the members of 5 bank and securities company groups say large financial firms are more likely to want to participate in TARP than smaller ones are.

About 70% of financial firms with assets over $5 billion said they want to participate in the program, compared with 46% of companies with $1 billion to $5 billion in assets and 52% of firms with less than $1 billion in assets.

The researchers who compiled those statistics talked to members of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, New York; the American Securitization Forum, New York; the American Bankers Association, Washington; the Mortgage Bankers Association, Washington; and the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association, New York.

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