US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has agreed to testify before a congressional committee over the controversial government bailout of insurance giant AIG during the financial crisis, the panel said Thursday.
Geithner said separately Thursday that he was not involved in any decision related to the disclosure of details about the terms of the 2008 federal bailout of American International Group.
A congressional panel Wednesday subpoenaed documents on the bailout, including from Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before his current appointment.
The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee said that internal AIG emails obtained by the panel to date “indicate that the (New York Fed) may have urged AIG to keep secret the details of the counterparty payments, despite the fact that taxpayer dollars made the payments possible.”
Committee chairman Edolphus Towns said Thursday he “received confirmation”
from Geithner’s office that he would testify before the committee on January 27.
Towns had said his committee was seeking information on payments made to AIG counterparties — major global banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Societe Generale.
The panel seeks emails, phone logs and meeting notes from the New York Fed and Geithner, among others, on the discussions held ahead of the bailout decision.
In an interview Thursday with the CNBC broadcasting network, Geithner said he was not involved in decisions about disclosing details of payments to AIG counterparties.
“You know I have not looked at those memos actually. I was not involved in that decision. But I do think the Fed — the Fed did disclose all of that information subsequently,” he said.
“I think they made the right thing disclosing. It’s important that the American people see all of this information.”
The New York Fed said on Wednesday it would provide any relevant material to the congressional panel.
“We will work with the committee to provide relevant information as appropriate,” said Deborah Kilroe, the bank’s spokeswoman.
Some lawmakers have called for Geithner’s resignation.
Asked to comment, Geithner said: “Oh, that’s the judgment that the president has to make.
“You know, as long as I have the chance to help him do this, fix these problems, I’ll be honored to do it,” he said, citing the financial and economic problems gripping the country as it recovers from a brutal recession.
