CCH Financial Reform News Center

Grassley Seeks Information on GM Purchase of AmeriCredit Corp.

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program to look into General Motor’s purchase of the auto loan company AmeriCredit Corp., including whether the Treasury Dept. was involved in the acquisition. General Motors currently is 61-percent owned by the U.S. government as a result of TARP. In his letter to Neil Barofsky, Grassley said that if GM had the funds to buy the lender it should instead have used the money to repay the TARP investment.

SIGTARP Report Criticizes HAMP Results, Treasury Actions

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

The Quarterly Report to Congress filed by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program noted that the Home Affordable Modification Program continues to have difficulty achieving its goal of keeping people in their homes through permanent reductions of mortgage payments to affordable levels. “HAMP has not put an appreciable dent in foreclosure filings,” the report said, noting that more modifications have failed than have succeeded. The report also said that “Treasury's refusal to provide meaningful goals for this important program is a fundamental failure of transparency and accountability .

Bachus Cites SIGTARP Report Findings for Job Losses and Bailout Policies

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., released a statement on the report issued by the Treasury Department's Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) regarding the relationship between job losses and President Obama's auto bailout policies. The report was released as the President called for further government spending to address the nation's staggering unemployment rate. Bachus stated, “It's a shame that a program designed to save jobs was so poorly executed that it cost tens of thousands of Americans their jobs and shuttered thousands of Main Street businesses, many of which had been institutions in their communities for generations.”

 

SIGTARP Reports on Auto Dealer Terminations

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

Following a request by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce. Science, and Transportation, and Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has issued a report discussing the decisions of General Motors and Chrysler to reduce their dealership networks and the pace at which the automakers terminated the dealerships. The report addressed: the role of the Treasury’s Auto Team, which has the responsibility, among other things, of evaluating the companies’ restructuring plans and negotiating the terms of any further assistance, in the decision to reduce dealership networks; the extent to which GM and Chrysler developed and documented processes for deciding which dealerships to terminate and which to retain; and to what extent the dealership reductions are expected to lead to cost savings for GM and Chrysler.

Issa Spurs SIGTARP Audit of Hardest Hit Housing Markets Fund

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

A letter drafted by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., raising concerns about the $2 billion Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Market (Hardest Hit Fund) has prompted the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), Neil Barofsky, to announce an audit of the fund. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Issa stated his concerns over the program's opacity, waste, and poor planning and requested that Treasury make available basic information about how the projects subsidized by the Hardest Hit Fund will be proposed, evaluated and assessed. When Issa did not receive a response from Geithner, he wrote to SIGTARP, requesting an audit of the fund.

SIGTARP Reports on Treasury's Monitoring of Exceptional Assistance Program

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), Neil Barofsky, has issued a report on Treasury's efforts to ensure companies that received exceptional assistance comply with the conditions of their agreements. The audit seeks to determine the extent to which Treasury follows a clear, consistent and effective process to ensure companies receiving exceptional assistance adhere to their agreements. The report concludes that Treasury has not adopted the rigorous approach or developed the professional team necessary for an adequate compliance system and makes recommendations to address the issues identified.

Baucus Commends TARP Special Inspector General

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., commended the efforts of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky and his team following the oversight office’s first annual achievement award ceremony honoring the office’s outstanding work on behalf of American taxpayers. Baucus was instrumental in creating the office of the TARP Inspector General to ensure transparency and accountability in the TARP program, which helped to stabilize the U.S. economy during the financial crisis. “Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of good governance, which is why I fought so hard to create a TARP Inspector General,” stated Baucus.

SIGTARP to Review TARP Contracting Process

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has notified the Treasury Department that it will conduct an audit of the processes used by the Treasury Department used to procure professional services to support TARP. The SIGTARP audit seeks to determine whether service contract prices were fair and reasonable, and whether invoices submitted by contractors accurately reflect the work performed.

SIGTARP Issues Report on Sale of TARP Warrants

By Gregg D. Killoren, J.D., CCH State Banking Law Reporter, Bank Digest and Individual Retirement Plans Guide.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) has released an audit report assessing the Treasury Department's process to sell warrants received from Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) recipients. Under the Emergency Economic Stablization Act of 2008, the Treasury Department received warrants or debt instruments for every investment it made in under TARP. The warrants provide the Treasury the option of purchasing common stock of the publicly-held financial institution that received TARP funds at a predetermined price. As the recipient institutions repay the TARP funds, the Treasury sells the warrants either directly to the recipient institution or through a public auction. The audit seeks to determine: (1) the process and procedures the Treasury has established to ensure that the government receives fair market value for the warrants; and (2) the extent to which the Treasury follows a consistent and well-documented process in reaching its decision to sell warrants back to recipient institutions.

SIGTARP Releases Latest Quarterly Report

This story appeared in Bank Digest.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) has released its latest quarterly report. The report discusses the activities of SIGTARP. It details how the Treasury Department has spent TARP funds and contains an explanation or update of each program, both implemented and announced. The report describes the operations and administration of the Office of Financial Stability, the office within Treasury that manages TARP. Also, the report states SIGTARP's recommendations to Treasury with respect to the operation of TARP.