US nominates Treasury official Massad to TARP role

The White House nominated US Treasury Department official Timothy Massad as that agency's assistant secretary for financial stability on Friday, placing him in charge of the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Massad is currently serving in that role in an acting capacity. He joined the Treasury Department in 2009.

President Barack Obama also nominated five other people to US government posts on Friday. If confirmed by the US Senate, Massad will take over an unpopular government bank bailout program.

The Obama administration says the $700 billion TARP program stabilised the US financial system during its crisis. But the program has been stigmatized for bailing out Wall Street at the expense of ordinary Americans, using billions of dollars of taxpayer money to prop up major financial firms, including Citigroup and Bank of America .