Local bankers and their advocates reacted with disappointment Tuesday to the lack of details in the Treasury bank rescue plan and defended themselves from the charge that the industry took bailout money and failed to lend.

"The announcement was deplorable - no specificity," said Ernie Panasci, a banking attorney with Jones & Keller. "I think that the speech was perceived as the Treasury not having fully developed a plan."

"Geithner has announced only broad outlines, not details," said Barbara Walker, executive director of the Independent Bankers of Colorado. "With many key positions still not filled at Treasury, who knows how long it will be for the details to be forthcoming. Lots of brave words and concepts, but very little meat on the bones."

Don Childears, CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association, said "on the surface the proposal seems to be a good framework, but the devil will be in the details."

One devil may be the private sector, which Treasury sees as playing a key role in buying up banks' troubled assets, with government loan assistance.

"I think it is smart to tap into those private resources sooner than later," said Greg Symons, CEO of Colorado State Bank & Trust. "Not only does it increase the size of the pool to monetize the problem assets, it also creates the beginning of an exit strategy. . . . This is important for all of us as taxpayers. We don't want to be the backstop for the financial system forever."

Panasci, however, thinks "the pricing will be very difficult because the private sector will have a tremendous desire to drive the prices down. It is possible the pricing mechanism will drive the market value of the remaining assets on the banks' books further, aggravating the problem."

The original Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, announced by previous Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson first contemplated buying troubled bank assets, then switched its focus to injecting capital into banks.

Critics of the plan and of the industry accused banks of "hoarding" taxpayer money instead of quickly making loans to get the economy going.

"When TARP money is injected into banks, they cannot simply 'flip the switch' and begin making loans," said Mark Martinez, regional president and senior lending officer for Solera National Bank. "The fact remains that we are operating in an environment where many individuals as well as businesses are suffering from impaired liquidity, declining revenues and cash flow, declining collateral values and credit standing. The universe of qualified borrowers is shrinking by the day.

"The biggest mistake that banks could make is to simply begin lending to otherwise unqualified borrowers to simply jump- start the flow of credit," Martinez said. "If we do that, we will surely experience round two of this crisis when those credits then become impaired. Banks on one hand are being told by the public and Congress to begin the flow of credit. On the other hand, bank regulators (who are feeling quite snakebitten) are appropriately encouraging banks to engage in much more conservative lending practices."