Page 1 GAO-24-107033 | Lifetime Cost of TARP

TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM: Lifetime Cost 

GAO-24-107033, December 2023

On October 3, 2008, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) in response to the 

financial crisis. EESA established the Office of Financial Stability (OFS) within the Department of the Treasury and 

created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to assist financial institutions and markets, businesses, 

homeowners, and consumers. Over the past 15 years, OFS managed the TARP investments to minimize costs to the 

taxpayers. With the conclusion of TARP in September 2023, we can now summarize the ultimate cost of the program.

TARP-Funded Program Costs

EESA originally authorized TARP to purchase or 

guarantee up to $700 billion in assets. The DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection 

Act of 2010 reduced that amount to $475 billion. 

Taken as a whole, the final cost of TARP was 

significantly less than its original authorization. As of 

September 30, 2023, the total amount disbursed 

under TARP-funded programs was $443.5 billion. 

However, after repayments, sales, dividends, 

interest, and other income, the lifetime cost of TARPfunded programs was $31.1 billion. While there will 

be no impact to the net cost, TARP has over $14.2 

billion in unused funds that it will return to Treasury at 

the end of fiscal year 2025. Figure 1 summarizes the 

lifetime cost of TARP by program.

Figure 1: Lifetime Cost of TARP-Funded Programs

TARP’s Major Programs

OFS established several programs under TARP to 

help stabilize the U.S. financial system, restart 

economic growth, and prevent avoidable 

foreclosures. Below is a brief summary of the TARPfunded programs and costs.

Capital Purchase Program (CPP)

CPP was launched in October 2008 to help stabilize 

the financial system by providing capital to viable 

financial institutions of all sizes nationwide. Under 

CPP, OFS received preferred stock or debt, as well 

as stock warrants, in return for its investment. 

According to program terms, participating financial 

institutions were to repay the funds they received, 

subject to the approval of their regulators. Through 

CPP, Treasury disbursed a total of $204.9 billion to 

707 institutions in 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the 

District of Columbia. After repayments, sales, 

dividends, and interest, however, the program 

resulted in a net gain of $16.3 billion.

Community Development Capital Initiative 

(CDCI)

CDCI was created in February 2010 to help viable 

certified community development financial institutions 

and the communities they serve cope with the effects 

of the financial crisis. Under CDCI, 84 financial 

institutions received investments with an initial 

dividend or interest rate of 2 percent. To encourage 

repayment while recognizing the unique 

circumstances these institutions faced, the program’s 

terms stated that the dividend rate would increase to 

9 percent after 8 years. Though CDCI disbursed a 

total of $570.1 million, the final cost of the program—

after repayments, sales, dividends, and interest—

was $67.5 million.
Page 2 GAO-24-107033 | Lifetime Cost of TARP

Automotive Industry Financing Program

(AIFP)

AIFP was launched in December 2008 to help 

prevent the collapse of General Motors (GM) and 

Chrysler, which would have significantly disrupted the 

U.S. auto industry. The program disbursed $79.7 

billion in loans and equity investments to GM, 

Chrysler, and General Motors Acceptance 

Corporation (now known as Ally Financial). After 

repayments, sales, dividends, and interest, AIFP cost 

a total of $12.1 billion.

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) 

Investment Program 

The U.S. government acted to prevent the disorderly 

failure of AIG, after concluding that such a failure 

would have caused catastrophic damage to the 

financial system and the economy. Treasury, the 

Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and AIG 

completed a restructuring plan for AIG that enabled 

the company to restore its financial condition and 

fully repay taxpayers. Starting in November 2008, 

Treasury used TARP funds to invest $67.8 billion in 

AIG, helping to secure its liquidity. After repayments, 

sales, dividends, interest, and other income related to 

AIG, TARP’s ultimate cost was $15.2 billion. 

Treasury also received non-TARP shares of AIG. As

such, the TARP cost was offset by $17.5 billion in

proceeds from the sale of additional non-TARP 

shares of AIG held by Treasury, resulting in a net 

gain for Treasury as a whole.

TARP Housing Programs

OFS launched two housing programs—Making Home 

Affordable and the Hardest Hit Fund—to help 

struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure and 

stabilize the housing market. In addition, TARP 

provided support to the Federal Housing 

Administration Refinance Program, designed to 

assist borrowers whose homes were worth less than 

the remaining amounts due on their mortgage loans 

(negative equity). Recipients were not required to 

repay the government for funds they received. In 

total, these programs assisted more than 3.3 million 

homeowners and supported neighborhood 

improvement efforts at a final cost of $31.4 billion.

Other TARP-Funded Programs

Additional TARP-funded programs included the 

Targeted Investment Program, Asset Guarantee 

Program, Supervisory Capital Assessment Program, 

Public-Private Investment Program, Term AssetBacked Securities Loan Facility, and Small Business 

Administration 7(a) Securities Purchase Program. 

Together, these programs disbursed $59.1 billion and 

resulted in a net gain of $11.4 billion.

TARP Administrative Costs 

The administrative costs of running these programs 

are not reflected in the amounts above. As of 

September 30, 2023, total administrative costs since 

the inception of TARP were $2.1 billion. OFS will 

continue to incur costs in fiscal year 2024 as it winds 

down all remaining administrative matters. 

TARP Oversight

We have audited TARP’s financial statements

annually, including the costs of the individual 

programs, since the program’s inception. For the 

entire 15-year duration of TARP, we issued 

unmodified (clean) opinions on its financial 

statements. In addition, we performed many other 

audits of TARP-funded programs and made over 70 

recommendations for corrective action, most of which 

Treasury implemented. The Financial Stability 

Oversight Board and the Special Inspector General 

for TARP also performed oversight of the TARPfunded programs. For more information on TARP, 

see the fiscal year 2023 OFS Agency Financial 

Report, including our opinion on the financial 

statements, in GAO-24-106814 and on Treasury’s 

TARP website.

Agency Comments

We provided a draft of this report to OFS for review 

and comment. OFS management thanked us for our 

audit work on TARP over the years. OFS also 

emphasized the benefits that taxpayers received 

from TARP, including the stabilization of the financial

sector, the rescue of the domestic auto industry, and 

the prevention and mitigation of millions of 

foreclosures.

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We conducted our work from September 2023 to December 2023 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require 

that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to 

provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit 

objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for 

our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

For more information about this product, contact: Cheryl Clark, Director,

Financial Management and Assurance, (202) 512-3406.

Staff acknowledgments: Lynda Downing (Assistant Director), Brian S. Harechmak 

(Analyst-in-Charge), Vincent Gomes, Seth Brewington, and Jason Kelly.

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