Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for TARP, in his most recent quarterly report to Congress has said, “The role of Federal government in financing housing has grown so dramatically since the outset of the housing crisis that the government now no longer simply supports the mortgage market. It has taken on so much of the risk involved in financing housing that it has become the market, with the taxpayer shouldering the risk that had once been borne by the private investor.”

Barofsky makes his case in the report, discussing how TARP programs, particularly the Asset Guarantee Program, the Home Affordable Modification Program and the Public-Private Investment Program play key roles in supporting the Federal commitment to the mortgage markets. Federal programs now stretch from origination to guarantor to securitization and finally to domination of mortgage backed securities markets.

An accounting of the Obama Administration's mortgage modification program was also included in the SIG report. TARP provides $50 billion to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

The average allocation to each servicer through HAMP is $348.5 million. To date, the largest allocation of incentive payments went to Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP, now owned by

Bank of America, which is eligible to receive up to $6.8 billion in TARP funds. The amount of funding allocated to a servicer does not represent the amount of incentives paid to the servicer; rather, the allocation is the maximum amount, or cap, of potential incentive payments that Treasury has approved for each servicer. (With Input from Agencies)