The congress hired him in 1998 to make a thorough audit of the bank rescue.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation typically forces the ouster of top executives before approving assistance in any bank rescue.

The series reopens the debate over the government's controversial $100 billion bank rescue after the peso collapse in 1994.

The F.D.I.C. has said it expects the bank rescue, which at the time was the largest in history, to cost the fund about $2 billion.

So Geithner and his colleagues speak about the bank rescue in a Washington vernacular designed to preserve political options and elasticity.

There has been some speculation that Mr. Lopes might disclose incriminating details of the bank rescue.

However, the bank rescue in the UK was less swift than it might have been because of the consequences of EU competition policy.

It permitted money to be used to save the banks, a little money to be left over for the next potential bank rescue, but did not permit ...

Mr. Seidman indicated that the biggest bank rescue still anticipated this year would cost the agency less than $1 billion.

If no agreement is reached soon, the political heat could rise even further when a new Congress, with legislators who have been among the angriest critics of the bank rescue, convenes on Sept. 1.