Regulators to Start Assessing Banks' Books

Bank regulators will go into financial institutions this week in an effort to gather data and create a coordinated approach to assessing what's on the books of the banks, sources tell CNBC.

Steve Liesman
CNBC Senior Economics Reporter

Regulators have been in the banks, but the current effort is en route to creating a uniform, tougher stress test that will be used to assess the capital needs of the banks, the second part of the administration's plan.

A senior administration official tells CNBC that details on the third part of the plan—the public/private partnership to take over toxic assets—will come within weeks.

This is the first time the Obama administration has given a sense of its timing. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was roundly criticized for failing to provide such detail when he announced the plan last week.

Geithner was questioned closely on the U.S. bank bailout plan at the G7 meeting over the weekend in Rome. (Read more here)

Rather than demanding stronger action from allies, Geithner hoped to motivate them by laying out U.S. plans.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, President Obama will unveil what CNBC is told will be "a very detailed" housing plan.

CNBC has learned the President will unveil a package of programs to help those in danger of foreclosure or those headed in that direction, and a series of programs to ensure mortgage.

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