TIMOTHY GEITHNER

The Obama administration is expected to propose legislation to Congress by June calling for the U.S. Federal Reserve to regulate systemic risk in the economy, three trade association sources said on Friday.

Results of a government test of how the biggest U.S. banks would fare in an even more punishing economic environment are unlikely to spur a major pick-up in lending, though they may remove some of the uncertainty in the banking system.

The U.S. government was preparing on Thursday to draw a line separating the weak from the strong in the banking sector in an attempt to put the worst of the financial crisis behind it.

Investors braced for the release of bank stress test results that will separate the weak from the strong and force some top banks to raise billions of dollars in capital.

The detailed version of President Barack Obama's budget unveiled on Thursday maintains a $250 billion placeholder for additional financial rescue efforts should that money be needed, an administration official told Reuters.

Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp shares rallied in premarket trading ahead of the release of stress test results that will force them and other top banks to raise tens of billions of dollars in capital.

Regulators are ordering some of the largest U.S. banks to find tens of billions of dollars of capital to cushion themselves in the event of a deep economic downturn.

Regulators are ordering some of the largest U.S. banks to find tens of billions of dollars of capital to cushion themselves in the event of a deep economic downturn.

U.S. officials could lay out as soon as Wednesday guidelines for how banks can repay taxpayer bailout funds, sources familiar with administration thinking said on Tuesday.

U.S. regulators are working with the top 19 banks on Tuesday to put the final touches on the results of regulatory stress tests, which are expected to reveal about half the banks need more capital but face manageable losses.

The largest U.S. banks made the case to regulators on Monday that they have the financial firepower to withstand a deeper recession, as Bank of America denied a report it was trying to raise capital of $10 billion.

President Barack Obama vowed on Monday to overhaul tax policies that he said reward companies for shifting U.S. jobs overseas and that allow wealthy people to evade taxes using offshore accounts.

President Barack Obama on Monday will propose changing provisions in the tax code that he says encourage U.S. companies to move jobs overseas, as part of a broader package aimed at saving $210 billion over 10 years.

U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday after grim growth data offered hints of future expansion, a prospect reinforced by the Federal Reserve's hopeful comments.

Citigroup Inc has asked the U.S. Treasury for permission to pay special bonuses and is looking for ways to free an energy-trading unit from government restrictions, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.

Citigroup is asking the U.S. Treasury for permission to pay out bonuses to some employees, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. banking system could be free of government money within a year, the powerful chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said on Tuesday.

The current global crisis is an obstacle in the fight against poverty and is threatening to reverse any gains on the fight against poverty.

The Obama administration has assured Switzerland that it understands the importance of resolving Swiss concerns over a legal case involving Swiss bank UBS, a U.S. Treasury official said on the weekend.

Switzerland, under pressure to join a global crackdown on tax fraud, asked the United States Saturday to drop a legal case involving UBS bank in return for a new tax accord the two countries are about to negotiate.

Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Saturday to drop a legal case involving clients of UBS bank in return for a new tax accord the two countries are about to negotiate.