The U.S. Treasury Department is now requiring banks that received the most funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) to report on use of those funds, and not a moment too soon.

Bloomberg News and American Banker reported today that the banks must report by Jan. 31 on how they used public Tarp funds in the fourth quarter of 2008 and must report monthly thereafter. Fittingly, these reports will be made public so that this economic rescue process will be more transparent. The banks subject to the new reporting requirements include: Citigroup Inc., Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., U.S. Bancorp, Sun Trust Banks, Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., Regions Financial Corp., Fifth Third Bancorp, BB&T Corp., Bank of New York, Mellon Corp., Keycorp, CIT Group Inc., Comerica Inc., State Street Corp, Marshall & Ilsley Corp., and Northern Trust Corp.

Woodstock Institute and members of the Illinois Community Investment Coalition will be watching closely and urging Tarp recipients to use these funds to invest in low- and moderate-income communities and stimulate economic recovery where it is most needed.