WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. financial system remains fragile a year after a bank bailout program was initiated and the government needs to be ready to step in to help more if necessary, a senior U.S. Treasury department official said on Thursday. "The recovery has just begun, the financial system remains fragile, and the credit markets are not fully ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new overseer of the U.S. government's $700 billion bank bailout fund said on Wednesday an intently awaited program to cleanse toxic assets from banks' balance sheets should soon be ready to roll out. Herb Allison told a Congressional Oversight Panel there has been progress in developing public-private partnerships to pair investors and the government in ...

Herbert Allison, the former head of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, has been confirmed to oversee the government's $700 billion bank bailout program. The Senate voted Friday to confirm Allison as the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial stability. In that role, Allison ...

BAILOUT MANEUVERS

When Washington unveiled plans to subject big banks to "stress tests" to see how they would fare if the economy got even worse, regulators indicated the results would stay secret to avoid spooking investors and setting off bank runs. Now, Uncle Sam is thinking again, on the theory that keeping investors in the dark could torpedo confidence if ...