Citi's Pandit, GMAC execs to testify before TARP panel

Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vikram Pandit and executives from GMAC Inc are scheduled to testify before the panel overseeing the US Troubled Asset Relief Programme.

Pandit will appear at a hearing on March 4, while GMAC CEO Michael Carpenter and finance chief Robert Hull will testify on February 25 in Washington, according to a statement posted on the Congressional Oversight Panel’s website. The panel, headed by Elizabeth Warren, oversees the government’s administration of the US bailout funds and recommends regulatory changes.

Citigroup, based in New York, is 27 per cent owned by the US government after taking $45 billion in rescue funds. It paid back $20 billion of taxpayer money in December. Detroit-based GMAC, the primary lender to General Motors Co and Chrysler Group LLC dealers, is 56.3 per cent owned by taxpayers and has benefited from $17.3 billion in government funds.

“We were invited to participate in the panel and to describe the company and our role in the auto-finance industry as well as provide an update on our turnaround efforts,” GMAC spokeswoman Gina Proia said in a phone interview. She confirmed that Carpenter and Hull will attend the hearing. Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen confirmed Pandit’s attendance and declined to comment further.

Taxpayer protection
The hearings would seek to determine what GMAC, Citigroup and the Treasury Department are doing to “make sure taxpayers get their investment back,” Jackson said. The panel’s March report would focus on GMAC and its efforts to return to profitability, he said.

GMAC’s preferred shares owned by the government had a net asset value of $7.17 billion at the end of September, down from a $14.11 billion principal amount, according to a January 13 report from the panel.