The Obama administration indicated Monday that it will not unveil new measures to aid the financial services industry until next week, but will instead move on the issue of Wall Street bonuses and executive compensation.
In an interview aired on NBC Monday, Obama said, "I don't want to pre-empt an announcement next week," when asked if the administration was committed to the bad bank idea.
The President added that "we're going to have see some of this debt written down."'
A Treasury spokesman confirmed that the framework for strengthening banks and dealing with the financial crisis will likely be unveiled early next week.
The Treasury is working with other government agencies to craft a plan that will allocate the second half of a $700 billion financial rescue fund and further bolster the banking sector while also supporting credit markets and providing relief from home foreclosures.
The bad bank concept and other measures to aid banking were at the center of a weekend's worth of discussions between government officials and representatives of the financial services industry. Those talks also included new rules on executive pay and lending transparency for institutions receiving funding under the TARP program.
The bad bank concept is "part of an overall plan," the president told NBC in the interview.
The president confirmed in the interview that his administration would be addressing the compensation issue, saying he had asked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to "put together a clear set of guidelines. If a bank or financial institution is getting relief, then they've got to abide by certain conditions."