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 Even though distressed investor Wilbur Ross is actively searching for a bank to buy, he's taking a wait and see approach on the reworked Troubled Asset Relief Program (or, as the Obama administration prefers to call it, the Financial Stability Plan) that's supposedly designed to draw in private investors ... like Ross. The head of WL Ross & Co. told Bloomberg that private capital investors like himself are steering clear of the toxic assets until the banks come clean on the value of the securities on their books. "The reason the assets haven't changed hands is they haven't been properly marked," Ross said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Although the banks have already taken billions in write-downs on these assets, Ross still thinks that lenders are marking them at prices well above what the market will pay for them. Ross also sees the lack of available leverage to purchase the toxic assets as slowing the entrance of private equity into the sector. While Ross thinks the Geithner plan needs work, he appears to be happy to see a change from how the crisis was handled by the Bush administration. "Even for lack of specifics, at least it's a direction," Ross said. "It was hippity-hoppity all over the lot," Ross said of the Treasury's financial rescue policies under former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. "That created a lot of problems because it made the average citizen feel the government didn't know what it was doing." At the moment Ross' fund is reportedly considering teaming with the Carlyle Group to buy the distressed thrift BankUnited Financial Corp. - George White See Bloomberg story See Dealscape post on Ross/Carlyle bank bid CategoriesPrivate capital video
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