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Client Alert

EESA Update: Treasury Shows More on TARP

October 13, 2008

Kevin L. Petrasic

In a speech to the Institute of International Bankers this morning in Washington, D.C., the newly appointed Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, Neel Kashkari, provided further insights into the Treasury Departments efforts to implement the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). Signaling the breadth with which Treasury is applying the tools provided by EESA, Kashkari noted that [t]he law gives the Treasury Secretary broad and flexible authority to purchase and insure mortgage assets, and to purchase any other financial instrument that the Secretary, in consultation with the Federal Reserve Chairman, deems necessary to stabilize our financial markets -- including equity securities. On this latter point, Kashkari stressed the importance of flexibility to address the unpredictability of events in the current credit crisis.

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