WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Treasury said Tuesday it had hired accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young to help with its emergency buyouts of toxic assets from troubled financial institutions.
The two firms will help "with accounting and internal controls services needed to administer the complex portfolio of troubled assets the department will purchase, including whole loans and mortgage-backed securities," the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The contracts were awarded as part of the government's new 700-billion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bail out financial firms saddled with soured assets related to falling US home prices.
Under the TARP, signed into law on October 3 under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, the Treasury is authorized to spend up to 700 billion dollars to combat financial turmoil using a toolbox that includes the purchase of toxic assets and equity stakes in troubled firms.
The Treasury said it had selected PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young from a pool of bidding candidates and their contracts end on September 30, 2011.
The Treasury announced on October 13 it had hired Ennis Knupp & Associates as its investment adviser for the massive TARP program.
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