Insurers poised to get Treasury funds
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LOS ANGELES - Insurers including Hartford Financial Services Group, Prudential Financial Inc., and Lincoln National Corp. have received preliminary approval to get billions of dollars from the government's financial industry rescue program.
Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams confirmed yesterday that Ameriprise Financial Inc. and Principal Financial Group Inc. also are among insurers receiving preliminary investment approval. He declined to disclose the amount of investment each company will receive.
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said separately yesterday that it was approved for a $3.4 billion Treasury investment.
"These life insurers met the requirements for the Capital Purchase Program because of their bank holding company status and each applied for CPP capital investments by the deadline of Nov. 14, 2008," Williams said in an e-mail.
He said the insurers are among the hundreds of financial institutions in the program's pipeline that will be reviewed and funded as appropriate on a rolling basis.
"These funds would further fortify our capital resources and provide us with additional financial flexibility during one of the most volatile market climates in our nation's history," Ramani Ayer, chairman and chief executive of The Hartford, said in a statement.
All terms of the Treasury investment in the Hartford-based life, property, and casualty insurer are subject to final negotiations and approval.
The Hartford and Lincoln National, two of the nation's largest life insurers, and several others applied to become thrift holding companies last fall. Regulators approved applications earlier this year from those two firms.
