Oversight concerns regarding Treasury Department conduct of the Troubled Assets [sic] Relief Program: hearing before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, December 10, 2008.

As of September 30, 2012, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) was managing assets totaling $63.2 billion in nonmortgage-related Troubled Asset Relief Programs (TARP). As of this date, Treasury had exited 4 of the 10 nonmortgage-related programs, and in December 2012 Treasury announced the exit from a fifth program--the American International Group (AIG) Investment Program. Exactly when Treasury will exit the remaining five programs remains uncertain. Treasury has identified several factors that will affect its decisions. For example, *for the Capital Purchase Program (CPP, created to provide capital to financial institutions), the financial condition of the participating institutions and the success of auctions; *for the Community Development Capital Initiative (CDCI, created to provide capital to credit unions and financial institutions in underserved communities), which Treasury has not yet decided to exit, the financial condition of the participating institutions and the rate at which the institutions repay Treasury; and *for the Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP, created to prevent a significant disruption of the American automotive industry). Some programs, such as CPP, have yielded returns that exceed the original investments. Others, such as CDCI and AIFP, have not. Unlike the nonmortgage-related TARP programs, TARP-funded mortgage programs, which focus on mitigating foreclosures, are ongoing, and Treasury's oversight of new requirements designed to improve servicers' interactions with borrowers showed both challenges and improvements. Treasury allocated $45.6 billion in TARP funds to three programs, including Making Home Affordable (MHA), but more than $40 billion of the funding has not yet been disbursed, and the programs have not reached the expected number of borrowers. The centerpiece of MHA is the Home Affordable Modification Program, which has provided about 1.1 million permanent modifications to borrowers. To help ensure that homeowners receive appropriate assistance from servicers under this and other MHA programs, since September 2011 Treasury has required servicers to identify a "relationship manager" to serve as the homeowner's single point of contact throughout a delinquency or imminent default resolution process. GAO found that Treasury's initial reviews of servicers' implementation of this requirement had identified some inconsistencies. However, oversight of a second requirement designed to improve the resolution of borrower inquiries and disputes (escalated cases) showed that the nine largest servicers had met the performance target. Treasury officials said that the MHA program administrator, Fannie Mae, handled oversight of the escalation process and the vendors who supported in keeping with Treasury's guidelines.

TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM: Treasury Could Better Analyze Data to Improve Oversight of Servicers' Practices

"The Department of the Treasury's(Treasury) authority to purchase,commit to purchase, or commit toguarantee troubled assets was setto expire on December 31, 2009.This important authority hasallowed Treasury to undertake anumber of programs to helpstabilize the financial system. InDecember 2009, the Secretary ofthe Treasury extended theauthority to October 3, 2010. In ourOctober 2009 report on theTroubled Asset Relief Program(TARP), GAO suggested as part ofa framework for decision makingthat Treasury should coordinatewith relevant federal agencies,communicate with Congress andthe public, and link the decisionsrelated to the next phase of theTARP program to quantitativeanalysis. This report discusses (1)the process Treasury used todecide to extend TARP and theextent of coordination withrelevant agencies and (2) theanalytical framework andquantitative indicators Treasuryused to decide to extend TARP. Tomeet the report objectives, GAOreviewed key documents related tothe decision to extend TARP,interviewed agency officials andanalyzed financial data."