4 US insurance firms bid to avail of financial rescue fund

Four insurance companies on Friday asked the government to allow them to buy thrifts so they can qualify to receive federal money under the financial rescue program.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Genworth Financial Inc., Lincoln National Corp. and Aegon NV, a Dutch company that owns US insurer Transamerica, each asked the Office of Thrift Supervision for permission to acquire an existing savings and loan.

The borderline for filing applications was Friday. The Treasury Department bureau said it accustomed submissions from those four firms to become austerity captivation companies by accepting accumulation and loans.

Insurers that own thrifts, which are federally regulated, are acceptable to administer for a section of the $250 billion the government is spending to buy shares in banks and added banking companies. Thrifts alter from banks in that, by law, they accept to accept at atomic 65 percent of their lending in customer loans such as mortgages.

Hartford Banking said it expects to be acceptable for amid $1.1 billion and $3.4 billion in government bailout money.

The Hartford, Connecticut-based aggregation said it had agreed to buy Federal Trust Coffer for about $10 actor and to inject an bearding bulk of new basic into the federally accountant accumulation bank. Federal Trust Bank, now endemic by Sanford, Florida-based Federal Trust Corp., operates 11 branches in Florida.

Richmond, Virginia-based Genworth Banking activated to access Inter Accumulation Bank, a austerity based in Minneapolis, according to the austerity agency. Philadelphia-based Lincoln National is searching to buy Newton County Accommodation & Savings, based in Goodland, Indiana, while Transamerica is gluttonous to access Suburban Federal Accumulation Coffer of Crofton, Maryland.

Insurance companies are mostly adapted at the accompaniment level, but insurers that become austerity captivation companies are beneath federal administration and thereby authorize for the government bailout money.

At atomic two dozen insurers currently own thrifts.

Many insurers accept been struggling. Hartford and Lincoln were a part of several companies analysts articular this anniversary as acceptable defective to accession basic and adverse the achievability of ratings downgrades.

A amount of property-casualty insurers accept said they aren't absorbed in accommodating in the bailout program. The industry appears to be breach amid activity insurers, some of whom accept ahead bidding absorption in accommodating in the program, and property-casualty companies.