WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the government will try to get a clearer sense of how seriously banks may be imperilled by bad assets as part of its financial services rescue package.
"We are going to bring together the government agencies with authority over our nation's major banks and initiate a more consistent, realistic and forward-looking assessment about the risk on balance sheets," Geithner said in remarks prepared for delivery to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
Geithner faced lawmakers for a second day after unveiling on Tuesday the Obama administration's plan for continuing the rescue of the ailing U.S. financial services industry, devastated by losses from the housing market collapse.
The plan will put $2 trillion to work mopping up bad assets and restoring credit but was immediately criticized for lacking detail and clarity.
(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by James Dalgleish)