Bailouts | featured news

The Obama administration has begun monitoring the high-level board meetings of nearly 20 banks that received emergency taxpayer assistance but repeatedly failed to pay the required dividends, according to Treasury Department officials and documents. And it may soon install new directors on some of their boards.

U.S. rescues prevented the failure of about 1,000 consumer credit unions, a regulator said Thursday, as the government stabilized three wholesale credit unions crucial to the retail system.

Troubled insurer AIG is to repay a $21bn bail-out loan, paving the way for a share sale by the US Treasury.

The Treasury Department will begin selling off the remaining 2.4 billion shares of Citigroup common stock the government holds as a result of aid provided to the bank during the financial crisis.

The Belgian finance minister and International Monetary Fund suggested that the scope of measures to stabilize the euro should be strengthened.

The U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program, which risked $700 billion of government funds to bail out troubled banks and automakers, will cost taxpayers a mere $25 billion, according to an estimate released on Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The budget plan for 2011 is aimed at reassuring nervous lenders that the country can avoid a bailout by meeting its deficit-cutting targets.

Treasury updated its projections for the cost of the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program, saying that for the first time the amount of funds that has been returned to taxpayers exceeds $250 billion.

The ultimate size will depend on whether Dublin merely tries to shore up and restructure its crippled banks, or whether a larger package is offered to give it more breathing room.

Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to lay the groundwork for bailing out Ireland's banking sector with the IMF, but said Dublin had to decide itself whether to request the aid.