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US shifts rescue away from buying toxic mortgage assets
AFP - Thursday, November 13
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - US authorities shifted the focus of a massive financial rescue plan, scrapping plans to buy up toxic mortgage assets and calling for help in restoring credit outside the banking sector.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the 700-billion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) would focus now on continued capital injections to struggling banks, but would also look at ways to help the "nonbank" financial sector .
This could include rescue efforts for credit card and auto loan debt that, like mortgages, is often packaged into securities sold to investors, Paulson said.
The Treasury chief said that even though the TARP program was originally designed to buy up mortgage paper, "our assessment at this time is that this is not the most effective way to use TARP funds."
Paulson said the circumstances have changed since Congress passed the massive bailout plan.
"I will never apologize for -- for changing an approach or a strategy when the facts change," he said. "I think the apologies should come the other way if -- if someone doesn't change when the facts change."
But Paulson said the program does not have the authority to make direct loans to the troubled Detroit auto giants, which have warned they may run out of cash soon.
"We care about our auto industry in the US. They are a key part of our manufacturing industry," he said.
However, he said, "the intent of the TARP was to deal with the financial industry."
Paulson's comments came as General Motors and Ford, which have lost a combined 30 billion dollars so far this year, stepped up pleas for government help.
They have asked for short-term loans of 25 billion dollars to forestall their collapse; GM is warning it only has the cash on hand to last a few more months.
The TARP program approved by Congress was initially aimed at buying up troubled mortgage paper but analysts had warned that such a plan could prove difficult to implement with prices hard to fix.
In the meantime, US officials had moved to emulate plans in Britain and elsewhere to tackle the credit squeeze by investing directly in banks.
Going further, Paulson said the Treasury would look at other types of consumer credit and asset-backed securities whose markets are frozen.
"The non-bank consumer finance sector continues to face difficult funding issues," Paulson said.
"This market is currently in distress, costs of funding have skyrocketed and new issue activity has come to a halt."
He said this illiquidity in the sector "is raising the cost and reducing the availability of car loans, student loans and credit cards."
He said the Treasury and Federal Reserve "are exploring the development of a potential liquidity facility" for such these assets outside the scope of regulated banks.
Paulson said the government was also looking at new ways "to mitigate mortgage foreclosures" without purchasing mortgage-backed securities.
One of these efforts announced Tuesday was "an explicit affordability target" set by regulators after taking over one failed bank, IndyMac.
In a related development, US regulators urged banks Wednesday to "fulfill their fundamental role" in the economy by maintaining lending to creditworthy borrowers.
A joint statement by the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and other bank regulators said the economic outlook could be worsened if banks retreat or tighten lending standards too much.
Paulson, who is gearing up for a summit of the Group of 20 leaders of industrialized and emerging economies this weekend, also moved to shift the blame away from the United States for the crisis.
He said the problems grew out of "persistent and growing global imbalances" and "excessive risk taking and a global search for return."
"Those excesses cannot be attributed to any single nation," he said.
"There is no doubt that low US savings are a significant factor, but the lack of consumption and accumulation of reserves in Asia and oil-exporting countries and structural issues in Europe have also fed the imbalances."
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