U.S. Treasury to Hire Up to 10 Asset Management Firms

U.S. Treasury to Hire Up to 10 Asset Management Firms (Update1)
By Rebecca Christie and Robert Schmidt | Bloomberg.com

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. plans to hire five to 10 asset-management firms as Secretary Henry Paulson establishes the government's new office for handling the financial bailout, a Treasury official said.

The department will also add about two dozen new employees, a mix of bankers, lawyers, accountants and others, the official said today on condition of anonymity. The Treasury's first attempt to hold an auction to buy troubled assets from financial firms will take at least four weeks to set up, said the official.

``We've been doing a lot of work getting ready for this,'' Paulson told reporters after Congress passed the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue package for financial institutions. ``Once the legislation is signed, we're going to be going out and lining up advisers from the private sector.''

Some of the Treasury's new employees will be on the government payroll, while others will be contractors, the official said. In selecting the asset-management firms, the Treasury plans to look at the cost and scope of services offered by the competing companies.

The Treasury is still considering guidelines on compensation and conflict-of-interest policy, the official said.