BEIJING, June 2 (Reuters) - Improving confidence may lessen U.S. banks' interest in programmes designed by the government to reduce toxic assets from their balance sheets, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.
Because banks are raising unexpectedly large amounts of capital from private investors, they may be able to sell more of their impaired assets in the market, Geithner told CNBC during a visit to Beijing.
But he said President Barack Obama's administration would work with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp to put asset-purchase programmes in place as insurance. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Ken Wills)