Herb Allison announced that he would resign from the federal bailout program also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) which he had been head of since April 2009.
Allison will be succeeded as head of the program by Tim Massad who will become acting assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability while the administration looks for a permanent successor.
Allison’s resignation is the latest departure from the administration’s economic team, In recent weeks, Peter Orszag, Obama’s budget director, and Christina Romer, head of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, have departed and Lawrence Summers, the president’s top economist, will leave at the end of this year.
TARP, which was created by Congress in October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, cannot commit money to new programs as of October 3rd. It will continue to support existing programs.