A federal-state program aimed at helping homeowners in states hardest hit by the mortgage crisis is falling far short of its goals, a federal watchdog said in a report released Thursday.
When Congress bailed out big banks, it also limited the pay of CEOs at those banks -- one of the main reasons why banks wanted out of the bailout program.
Hundreds of struggling small community banks could be stuck in the federal government's much-maligned bank bailout program, a watchdog agency warned in a report released Thursday.
The leaders of Europe's two largest economies have said they've agreed on a "comprehensive package" of measures to address the eurozone sovereign debt and banking crisis, but they did not give any details.
updated: Thu Oct 06 2011 06:14:00
CNN's Becky Anderson explains the Euro bailout fund and who pays what by using mugs of beer.
Europe's top banking regulator has started to re-examine the strength of the region's banks, modelling a big writedown of all peripheral eurozone sovereign debt.
It was once unthinkable but is now widely expected: Greece is headed toward default.
Regulators were under pressure to cut the biggest banks loose from the Wall Street bailout program, a federal watchdog said in a report issued Friday.
Treasury paid five law firms more than $27 million in fees to create contracts governing the TARP bailout of Wall Street banks, but law firms did a poor job of explaining what they did with the money, a watchdog said.
What is happening with the eurozone bailout fund?
As debt-ridden Greece braces for strikes while its prime minister attempts to reassure Europe that his country will pay its bills, the 17 eurozone countries are in various stages of deciding whether to approve the expansion of Europe's bailout fund.
U.S. taxpayers likely lost $1.3 billion in the government bailout of Chrysler, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
It's been a pretty good week for the Treasury Department's bailout program.
Don't look now, but the bank bailout is starting to turn a profit.
The Obama Administration's main foreclosure-prevention program continues to fall short, and last year's Wall Street reform act does not adequately address the threat that big financial firms pose to the broader economy, the top federal bailout watchdog said Tuesday.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the benefits of the government's bailout of the financial system Thursday, saying that the overall cost will be a "fraction" of the original estimate.
Two years after the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program was launched, the Congressional Budget Office now estimates the government's economic rescue package will cost taxpayers $25 billion.
The Treasury Department changed its accounting style and produced an overly optimistic estimate of taxpayer losses in the AIG bailout, the special investigator for the federal bailouts said in a report released Monday.
The Treasury Department's multi-billion dollar bailout of American International Group moved into the black after the insurer completed two transactions that raised nearly $37 billion, the department said Monday.
Two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it seems safe to say that there is still a lot of resentment toward the financial sector.
The $700 billion bank bailout program helped rescue overseas economies, but international bailout programs did little to help the United States in return, according to a report from a congressionally appointed watchdog group released Thursday.
While bailed-out Wall Street is back on its feet and making profits, Main Street banks have gotten little to no boost from taxpayer bailouts, a watchdog panel said Wednesday.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner defended the government's bailout of the financial system on Tuesday, saying it has been a "critical" part of the economic recovery and will ultimately cost less than expected.
It might seem that the banking sector's bailout saga is nearing its close, leaving room to focus on other catastrophes like the European debt crisis or the Gulf oil spill, but some small banks across the country that benefited from TARP are still struggling to stay afloat, and many more will likely fail.
An overseer of the $700 billion financial sector bailout said Wednesday that insurer AIG lacked regulation, leading to a taxpayer-funded rescue that "broke all the rules."
During the next banking crisis, we will need speed. Remember how floundering financial firms, like Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Fannie Mae, contributed to fear and uncertainty - creating problems for their customers, counterparties, and the markets? Many commercial and investment banks panicked, stopped extending credit, and greatly damaged our economy and financial system.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told lawmakers Tuesday that a proposed bank fee could help stabilize the financial system and recoup bailout costs by targeting banks that engage in more risky behavior.
The cost of the government's controversial bailout of the financial system could amount to less than a third of what the Obama administration originally expected, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to Congress Friday.
updated: Tue Mar 30 2010 22:49:00
CNN's Jim Boulden discusses Ireland's plan to set up a "bad bank" where some toxic loans will be transferred.
Government "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg plans to investigate the pay of executives at 419 firms that took TARP money, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Bank of America is leaving the Troubled Asset Relief Program with a bang.
The watchdog charged with monitoring the government's $700 billion bailout unleashed one of his harshest criticisms of the program to date, questioning its overall effectiveness.
President Obama on Thursday called on Congress to tax the largest banks to ensure that U.S. taxpayers don't lose a penny from the federal bailout of the financial, auto and insurance industries over the past year.
The Obama administration wants to slap big banks and insurers on the wrist with a new tax. Oh wait, it's not a tax. It's a "financial crisis responsibility fee."
President Obama will propose a new tax on financial institutions Thursday to ensure that taxpayers who bailed out banks get paid back, according to a senior administration official.
President Obama, looking to recoup billions in expected losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, will announce a plan Thursday to impose fees on the country's biggest financial institutions, a senior administration official told CNN.
updated: Wed Jan 13 2010 09:10:00
The bailed-out banks are bracing for their paydays in the form of bonuses as well as the outrage among Americans.
President Obama, looking to recoup billions in expected losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, will announce a plan Thursday to impose fees on the country's biggest financial institutions, a senior administration official told CNN.
The last of the big banks have returned their bailout funds, but uncorking the champagne would be premature: taxpayers still have a lot of skin in the game, and getting paid back only gets more difficult from here on out.
Wells Fargo said Monday it has reached an agreement with the government to return $25 billion in bailout money it received during last year's financial crisis.
The controversial $700 billion federal bailout program will be extended through Oct. 3, 2010, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Wednesday.
As the Obama administration considers how to approach the next phase of the $700 billion financial bailout, questions are being raised on Capitol Hill about whether it is helping the economy.
Federal regulators, in rushing to rescue AIG last year, failed to use their clout to negotiate concessions from business partners of the troubled insurer, a bailout overseer said on Monday.
Now that we're officially (if barely) out of the Great Recession, it's time for our nation's elected officials to get down to serious business -- that of taking credit, assigning blame, and calling each other liars.
What do you know? The suits at troubled finance firm GMAC must like working for less money. How else to explain that GMAC is reportedly trying to get a third helping of government rescue funds? GMAC is one of the seven firms that the Obama administration announced sweeping changes in executive compensation for last week.
Will the third bailout be the charm for GMAC?
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he expects a wave of banks to return government bailout money to taxpayers soon.
The $700 billion bailout will ultimately cost taxpayers billions of dollars, but the government stands to lose much more than the money it's pouring into companies.
A government watchdog says federal officials weren't entirely honest with the public about the health of the first 9 financial firms that got federal bailouts, according to a report released Monday.
As government regulators switch from crisis-mode to rescue mode, many of the biggest and most successful bailout programs are well on their way to extinction. But there are plenty of others that are gaining momentum as the economy heads toward a recovery.
It's nearly one year after the big crash, and the financial system is still functioning.
When it comes to TARP, it's better late than never for some banks.
If you're looking for the most detailed look yet about how banks have used funds from the $700 billion bailout, you're in luck.
Facing mounting bank failures, regulators are putting a new twist on a familiar idea: splitting a bank's good assets from the bad ones.
The economy may show signs of life, but so-called toxic assets are still a major threat to any recovery, a bailout watchdog group warned on Tuesday.
After rescuing the nation's banking system from utter disaster last fall, Washington now faces an arguably much trickier task: putting the bailout genie back in the bottle.
Lawmakers are quickly learning that "too big to fail" may be too complex to legislate away.
The independent overseer of the $700 billion bailout has caused a ruckus over an important question: How much do taxpayers have on the line?
The oversight czar tracking the $700 billion bailout told lawmakers Tuesday that he's concerned officials are not doing enough to prevent tax dollars from being wasted or pilfered.
The first big government bailout of the financial crisis -- the takeover of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- is poised to be the most expensive and complicated to complete.
The independent overseer of the $700 billion bailout has caused a ruckus over an important question: How much do taxpayers have on the line?
The top cop tracking the $700 billion bailout program said Monday that he's concerned federal officials are ignoring his proposals for preventing tax dollars from being wasted or pilfered.
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, testifying before Congress for the first time since leaving office, defended his role Thursday in salvaging a controversial deal struck during the height of the banking panic last fall.
Did government officials overstep their authority and force Bank of America to take over troubled Merrill Lynch at great taxpayer expense?
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced record earnings Tuesday of $3.44 billion for the second quarter of 2009.
The government on Wednesday tapped nine financial firms to manage a scaled-down program aimed at helping the nation's banks and said it would invest up to $30 billion to get it started.
The watchdog charged with investigating fraud in the government bailout programs is feuding with the Treasury Department about who he answers to.
Washington's most dramatic foray into the nation's financial sector since the Great Depression began on Oct. 13 with a misnamed acronym, an unwitting tribe of CEOs, and a confused staff of Treasury officials. It was a foreshadowing of the misadventure to come. "I don't even know who the 9 companies are. Do you?" Michele Davis, assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote in an e-mail sent at 7:15 a.m. on that history-making Monday. "No clue," Treasury chief of staff Jim Wilkinson responded. "Let me get the list."
Ten leading banks won approval to repay money from the government's controversial TARP program, regulators said Tuesday, which could represent approximately $68 billion in bailout funds returned to taxpayers.
Good riddance, TARP. It was nice knowing you.
Don't expect TARP-free banks to unleash a torrent of loans to cash-strapped consumers.
Banks that were stress tested by the government earlier this year should undergo another round of examinations, a government watchdog group said Tuesday, amid signs that the U.S. economy may be deteriorating faster than first expected.
Regulators shelved a controversial plan that aimed to cleanse banks' balance sheets of toxic assets.
Jamie Dimon isn't one to pull his punches. In fact, the JPMorgan chief's willingness to criticize, for example, the shortcomings of retroactively changing government bailout programs can be refreshing -- and often spot-on.
With another $30 billion in taxpayer bailout money set to go to General Motors -- for a total of $50 billion -- the bankrupt automaker will become the second-largest bailout recipient after AIG.
The government's list of troubled banks swelled in the first quarter, climbing to its highest level in nearly 15 years, regulators said Wednesday.
Some lawmakers are questioning whether the Treasury Department has the power to recycle returned bailout dollars to fund new or expanded rescues for auto companies, life insurers and small banks.
Banks that underwent stress tests earlier this month have set out raise $56 billion to plug holes in their books caused by big losses, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told a Senate panel on Wednesday.
Six life insurance companies have qualified to receive billions of dollars in bailout money under the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
With the stress tests behind them, banking regulators now face the potentially thornier issue of deciding which banks, if any, should be allowed to repay government funds.
Banks lining up to repay bailout funds are easing away from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s debt insurance plan, a program that helped banks through last fall's financial storm -- and has made money for the FDIC to boot.
Citigroup said Tuesday it authorized $8.2 billion in lending to U.S. consumers and businesses so far this year backed by taxpayer funding.
Ten of the nation's 19 largest banks will need to raise a total of $74.6 billion in capital, federal officials announced Thursday, bringing an end to relentless speculation about how much more money the nation's leading banks would need to withstand the recession.
Don't like your stress test results? The government may have just the tonic: the public-private investment partnerships that aim to relieve lenders of troubled assets.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chief Sheila Bair reiterated calls for creating a system that would allow regulators to dismantle a large financial institution.
The Treasury Department must make public more information about how banks and other companies are spending money received under the $700 billion bailout, a program overseer told Congress on Thursday.
Bankers itching to put TARP in the rearview mirror are finding it hard to make a quick getaway.
The top cop tracking the government's $700 billion bailout program said Tuesday that he has opened 20 criminal investigations and six audits into whether tax dollars are being pilfered or wasted.
Dick Kovacevich ought to be happy. The sun is shining in San Francisco on an early April morning, shares of Wells Fargo, where Kovacevich is chairman of the board, have almost doubled in a month, and Wells appears to have survived the worst of the banking crisis with its reputation intact (so far).
It looks like Washington is finally giving up on the silly idea that all banks are in the same boat. It's about time.
Consumers take heed: You too might be able to buy a piece of a government subsidized toxic bank asset. Whether you should is another question.
The Treasury Department is poised to open its $700 billion bailout program to life insurers, officials said Wednesday.
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to give the Treasury Department the power to ban future "unreasonable and excessive" compensation at companies receiving federal bailout money.
updated: Wed Apr 01 2009 21:53:00
Rep. Barney Frank spars with CNN's Lou Dobbs over a bill that gives the government the power to limit executive bonuses.
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to give the Treasury Department the power to ban future "unreasonable and excessive" compensation at companies receiving federal bailout money.
The mystery is solved: The Treasury Department has clarified its accounting of the $700 billion allocated for the financial-sector bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
The officials charged with overseeing the $700 billion financial bailout told lawmakers Tuesday that the Treasury Department must do more to ensure that taxpayer dollars are properly spent and that the public is kept in the loop.
updated: Mon Mar 30 2009 15:36:00
CNN's Brianna Keilar reports Congressional leaders are fuming over AIG paying bonuses to executives.
The American International Group debacle could be setting President Barack Obama up for trouble, should his administration try to move forward with additional bailouts.
There's a growing sense among some bankers that Troubled Asset Relief Program known as "TARP" has become toxic. As a result, they want to bail out of the bank bailout program.
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