Calling that a "subsidy" is stretching the English language quite a bit.

Try taking it away from the banks, and see how hard they fight to keep it.

Which suggests it is a real subsidy.

Using this logic, the following are subsidies as well: student loan guarantees, low student loan interest rates, tax deductions for mortgage interest payments, FDIC insurance of deposits.

Yep, they sure are. They are all benefits to particular groups that cost the government money to provide.

I don't think anyone here is saying that all subsidies are necessarily bad. Some activities are worth subsidizing. But let's not deny that that's what we're doing.

English is not my native language, but yes, those are subsidies too.

If the Federal government lends them large amounts of money at close to zero interest, and then the banks are allowed to turn around and lend it back out in the private sector at rates ranging anywhere from 3-20%+, I'd call that a subsidy. A huge subsidy or handout.