Former Fannie Mae head to take over bank bailout

Herbert Allison, the former head of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae (FNM), has been confirmed to oversee the government's $700 billion bank bailout program. The Senate voted Friday to confirm Allison as the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial stability. In that role, Allison will oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was established last fall to inject capital into banks hit hard from the mortgage crisis. "Herb Allison has extraordinary experience strengthening American financial institutions and has demonstrated great leadership in recent months at Fannie Mae," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement Friday. Earlier this month at his confirmation hearing, Allison told a Senate panel that the bailout program needed more time to work and that the nation shouldn't be fooled into thinking otherwise because some banks have started to repay the money. "I believe this is still a very serious economic time for this country, and much more has to be done to restore stability," Allison told the Senate Banking Committee. "We have to see this program through and make sure it's well-administered all along the way," he later added. Allison said that if confirmed, he would work to increase transparency of the program and share more details with Congress. He also vowed to do more to widen participation of the government's anti-foreclosures effort. "We have to be vigilant. We can't be complacent," Allison said. TARP is set to conclude at the end of the year unless Geithner extends it through fall 2010. "This program is designed to deal with an extremely serious financial crisis," Allison said. "It was not set up to be a long-term permanent program." Allison was finance chief for John McCain's 2000 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.