Treasury investment fund notes $1.7B gain

WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department said Friday that an investment program set up during the financial crisis to buy toxic assets from banks is showing a $1.7 billion gain.

The department committed $22.1 billion in taxpayer funds to the Public-Private Investment Program, which was created in March 2009. The money has been used to set up funds that have invested in mortgage-backed securities and other financial assets.

The goal is to take those assets off the books of large banks that were facing huge losses from bad real estate investments during the housing bubble.

The department has earned more than $500 million in dividends and other profits from the investments, Treasury said. And Treasury's share of the securities held in the funds has increased in value by $1.2 billion.

The department reports on the status of the funds each quarter.

Treasury has said that it expects to earn profits on many of its efforts to bail out the financial system. For example, the department says taxpayers have received $12.3 billion in profits from the $45 billion invested in Citigroup. -- AP