Treasury Secretary Calls for Increased Lending
February 7th, 2009 at 4:55 pm - by admin
Timothy Geithner, President Obama’s Treasury Secretary called for lawmakers to mandate loan modifications and a range of new standards according to a release cited to unnamed Democratic sources by Reuters, Saturday.
House Democrats in session questioned Geithner about a New York Times report claiming that the bailout funds were simply a windfall, for recovery plans “will not require banks to increase their lending,” nor any other changes to the way the banking establishment handles it’s assets to help recover the economy. Geithner rejected the veracity of the article, saying “We are not doing what they wrote … Institutions that get assistance will have to participate in loan modifications and meet other standards that we set. Public assistance is a privilege, not a right,” according to unnamed sources from Reuters.
The Obama administration’s plans for handling the financial crisis and international recession are slated to be released Monday, and will include details of how the remaining bailout funds will be spent.
The idea of a bad bank to acquire toxic assets is still up in the air, something many analysts are expecting to be discussed in the Monday announcement. It’s expected at this point, whether the terminology is ‘bad bank’ or not, some system will be announced which relies on the government increasing private banking confidence by purchasing bad assets and removing them from their balance sheets.


