After the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) issued its seventh quarterly report to Congress Wednesday, Special Inspector General of TARP Neil Barofsky and Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, said that, although the program has yielded some positive results, there are still lingering concerns.
“This quarter has definitively demonstrated that proactive law enforcement efforts can play a vital role in protecting taxpayers’ interests,” Barofsky said.
However the key issue that the committee wanted to focus on was the necessity for transparency and accountability, especially when addressing the challenges still facing the financial system and the economy.
“Under the TARP program, the Treasury put money into 707 banks, fewer than 10% of the small banks have managed to repay their TARP obligations, their problems are substantial,” Warren said. “Small banks face serious difficulties with the coming wave of commercial real estate loans and [they] do not have the same access to the capital that larger banks have.”
Barofsky said the lack of transparency being shown by the Department of Treasury is another issue that is concerning.
“I think that transparency is not for transparency sake, it makes the programs better and it makes them more credible,” he said. “By not documenting conversations or having formal negotiations it hurts the credibility of its programs in ways that are entirely unnecessary.”
Warren and Barofsky agreed that, under the TARP program, numerous strides at re-stabilizing the U.S. economy have yielded extremely positive results and in the future, hopefully with some realignment and accountability, the economy will be back on track.
TARP Yields Positive Results, Transparency Issues Linger
By Alexa Gitler - Talk Radio News Service
After the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) issued its seventh quarterly report to Congress Wednesday, Special Inspector General of TARP Neil Barofsky and Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, said that, although the program has yielded some positive results, there are still lingering concerns.
“This quarter has definitively demonstrated that proactive law enforcement efforts can play a vital role in protecting taxpayers’ interests,” Barofsky said.
However the key issue that the committee wanted to focus on was the necessity for transparency and accountability, especially when addressing the challenges still facing the financial system and the economy.
“Under the TARP program, the Treasury put money into 707 banks, fewer than 10% of the small banks have managed to repay their TARP obligations, their problems are substantial,” Warren said. “Small banks face serious difficulties with the coming wave of commercial real estate loans and [they] do not have the same access to the capital that larger banks have.”
Barofsky said the lack of transparency being shown by the Department of Treasury is another issue that is concerning.
“I think that transparency is not for transparency sake, it makes the programs better and it makes them more credible,” he said. “By not documenting conversations or having formal negotiations it hurts the credibility of its programs in ways that are entirely unnecessary.”
Warren and Barofsky agreed that, under the TARP program, numerous strides at re-stabilizing the U.S. economy have yielded extremely positive results and in the future, hopefully with some realignment and accountability, the economy will be back on track.