This was another form of bailout for Citigroup and Bank of America. As part of the agreement in late November, 2008 to help Citigroup, the Treasury agreed to backstop a $301 billion pool of assets by absorbing a portion of the losses beyond a certain point. Citi would have absorbed the first $39.5 billion in losses. If the losses continued past that, the government would have absorbed 90 percent of the losses. A trio of governmental agencies would have paid that share: The Treasury would first provide $5 billion, then the FDIC would put up $10 billion, and a Federal Reserve loan would provide the last resort. On Dec. 23, 2009, the Treasury and Citi terminated that agreement. No Treasury funds were ever paid out.

Later, the government struck a similar deal with Bank of America to backstop a pool of $118 billion in assets. Under those terms, the Treasury could have provided up to $7.5 billion. But Bank of America backed out of the deal before it was finalized, eventually paying a total of $425 million in fees to the Treasury, Fed, and FDIC.

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