The FDIC proposal, presented to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, would entail the government using some of the $700 billion of funds authorized under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to directly support home owners with guaranteed home mortgages. While the government has introduced several measures to assist homeowners directly, this is the first under the act passed earlier this month. Indeed, one criticism of the act was that it provided little relief to home owners.

AIG is also looking like it will need additional funding, according to statements made by the newly appointed CEO Edward Liddy. The insurance agency has used $90.3 billion of the funds made available to it by the government; it will need another $123 billion, he says, according to news accounts. In related news, AIG will be selling its life insurance subsidiary--along with its plane leasing and consumer finance operations--to shore up its core business.

Also, the Treasury Department is reportedly gearing up to release the second $125-billion tranche to regional banks. Nine major institutions received the first $125 billion. Applications have been rolling into Treasury from regional banks vying for a piece of the program as well. According to one news source, Treasury will be announcing deals between $50 billion and $125 billion in the next few days.

On Thursday, interim assistant secretary for financial stability Neel Kashkari updated the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on how the agency is executing its plans. "The Treasury has moved quickly since enactment of the bill to implement programs that will provide stability to the markets and help enable our financial institutions to support consumers and businesses across the country," he said. "We are focused on applying the authorities you provided in ways that are highly effective and protect the taxpayer to the maximum extent possible."

Besides the bank equity purchase program that Treasury announced last week, Kashkari provided highlights of the following:

• The Bank of New York-Mellon has been selected to serve as master custodian of the mortgage-backed securities purchase program.

"A Treasury team has been working with the Bank of New York to design the auction, identify which mortgage-backed securities to purchase and determine how best to reach thousands of potential bidders, quickly and effectively," he said. This team is completing its review of more than 100 securities asset manager solicitations and expects to hire asset managers in the coming days.

• The same team is also working with bank regulators to identify which types of loans to purchase under the whole loan purchase program, how to value them, and which purchase mechanism will best meet the policy objectives.
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• Treasury is also establishing a program to insure troubled assets. On Friday, October 10 it submitted a request for comment to the Federal Register seeking the ideas on structuring options for the insurance program. Responses are due by Tuesday, October 28. According to Kashkari, Treasury already has received several responses.