The US government has recouped 181 billion dollars of its bail-out money so far, according to an update on recent paybacks released by the Treasury Department. Recent paybacks included 3.4 billion dollars from the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc, which was a full repayment, and a 1- billion-dollar repayment from General Motors Co, Treasury officials said Friday.
The money was handed out in the 700-billion-dollar bail-out package approved by US Congress in the fall of 2008 as a recessionary squeeze threatened to collapse Wall Street. The 181 billion dollars that have been returned to the Troubled Asset Relief Programme was "well ahead of last fall's repayment projections for 2010," the Treasury Department said.
In fact, officials originally expected to lose about 76 billion dollars on the 245 billion dollars it invested in keeping the financial system afloat during the early days of the Great Recession. But now, the government expected to make a profit for taxpayers and has already pocketed 14 billion dollars from interest and dividends to date.
The bail-outs have drawn increasing fire as major financial firms return to making money and paying enormous salaries to their executives - many of them the same ones who led the nation to the financial precipice with their lending practices. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is under pressure by Congress to do more to help smaller businesses and banks at the heart of US communities.
While the financial sector has been largely stabilised, Geithner has acknowledged that the rate of bankruptcies was still "elevated" and said the remaining problem was persuading smaller banks to come forward and accept government help. Geither is shifting the focus from large banks to community banks and homeowners in danger of foreclosure as the economy embarks on a recovery from its worst recession in decades.
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