Geithner Says Distressed-Asset Programs to Start in Six Weeks
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By Rebecca Christie and Robert Schmidt
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner said he expects a pair of government programs to help banks remove their distressed assets will start by early July, policy makers’ next step in ending the worst credit crisis in decades.
“Working with the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, we expect these programs to begin operating over the next six weeks,” Geithner said in prepared testimony to the Senate Banking Committee today in Washington.
The Treasury’s Public-Private Investment Program will use $75 billion to $100 of government funds to finance sales of as much as $1 trillion in distressed mortgage-backed securities and other assets. The effort has two components, which the Treasury will manage in conjunction with the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Geithner also said that the Treasury has about $124 billion left in the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, including $25 billion in expected repayments over the next year. This compares with the department’s previous estimate of about $135 billion remaining as of late March.
Geithner said the Treasury and the Fed also expect to expand programs designed to help asset-backed securities markets, such as the Fed’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. The central bank yesterday announced it would add older commercial real estate securities to the TALF, marking the first time the program has included legacy assets as well as newly issued securities.
Expanding TALF
“The Treasury and the Federal Reserve will continue to monitor and enhance the ABS programs to bring in new, more niche asset classes and make sure that the number of eligible borrowers and issuers continues to increase,” Geithner said.
The Treasury chief reiterated his view that “there are important indications that our financial system is starting to heal,” highlighting diminished premiums in corporate, municipal and interbank lending markets.
The department is investigating “metrics” to use in judging the health of markets and the economy to determine “whether additional or different steps are needed,” he said. The “process of financial recovery and repair will take time.”
Banks have taken steps to strengthen their capital reserves since the conclusion of regulators’ stress tests on the biggest 19 lenders, he noted. Geithner repeated that “the vast majority of banks have more capital than they need to be considered well capitalized by their regulators.”
Geithner said the Obama administration is still working with
General Motors Corp. as that company seeks to meet a government-imposed deadline for restructuring. The company has until the end of this month to come up with a new plan or enter bankruptcy, as Chrysler LLC did.
“We will continue to work with GM and its stakeholders in the lead up to the June 1 deadline,” Geithner said. “We will also continue our significant efforts to ensure that financing is available to creditworthy dealers and to pursue efforts to help boost domestic demand for cars.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
Rebecca Christie in Washington at
[email protected].