This story appeared in Bank Digest.
Treasury Department designees acting under the authority of the Troubled Asset Relief Program used the government's leverage as General Motor's largest lender to influence the decision to "top up" the pensions of some hourly employees of Delphi, a GM subsidiary, according to a report by the TARP special inspector general. The combination of the Treasury's demand that GM resolve its bankruptcy in a period so short as to be unprecedented, combined with the ability of the United Auto Workers to delay that resolution, left GM with little choice but to include the top-up as part of its agreement with the union, according to Special Inspector General Christy Romero.