Treasury: $266.9 bn disbursed from $700 bn bailout pot

WASHINGTON: The Treasury Department announced on Thursday that it has disbursed $266.9 billion from the $700 billion financial rescue program.

In its latest update to Congress, the department said it closed $65.4 billion in transactions since its last report on Dec 2. Under the law that Congress passed on Oct 3, Treasury must provide a report summing up its activities once its commitments pass certain milestones.

The new report included $187.5 billion provided to banks in an effort to get them to resume more normal lending and $19.4 billion for the auto industry.

The support for the auto industry included $10.4 billion to General Motors Corp, USD 4 billion for Chrysler Holding LLC and $5 billion for GMAC LLC, the financing arm for General Motors.

Besides the program to buy preferred stock in banks and the auto support program, Treasury provided $20 billion to Citigroup Inc on Dec 31, and $40 billion to American International Group Inc on Nov 25 to keep the insurance giant from collapsing.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said last month that with the decision to provide support to the auto industry, the government had committed the first $350 billion of the bailout fund. He said Congress should authorize release of the second $350 billion.

However, for that to occur, the administration has to submit a report to Congress detailing how it planned to use the money.