Six insurers approved for US bailout funds: Treasury

WASHINGTON: Six major American insurance companies have received preliminary approval to receive a share of government bailout funds, a Treasury spokesman told media on Thursday.

The companies include Prudential, Lincoln National, Allstate, Principal Financial, Hartford Financial and Ameriprise, the spokesman said.

"These life insurers met the requirements for the Capital Purchase Program because of their bank holding company status and each applied for CPP capital investments by the deadline of November 14, 2008," he said in an email to AFP.

He added that the six are among hundreds of financial institutions "that will be reviewed and funded as appropriate on a rolling basis," adding: "This is not a new program."

Hartford said in a separate statement that it had been approved for up to 3.4 billion dollars.

The US government has already pumped more than 170 billion dollars into insurance titan American International Group to keep it afloat, the largest single recipient of federal bailout money, giving the government a major stake in the group.

The Treasury has also injected some 200 billion dollars in capital into dozens of banks out of a total program commitment for 250 billion dollars within the Capital Purchase Program of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).