Fannie Mae CEO Picked as Bailout Chief

Wall Street veteran and Fannie Mae CEO Herb Allison has been nominated to oversee the Treasury's $700 billion bank rescue, Bloomberg reports. If confirmed by Congress—where he's likely to be grilled on his defending of bonuses at Fannie—Allison will be tasked with deploying the second phase of the TARP program to take bad assets off the hands of troubled banks.

"Since taking over at Fannie Mae, Allison has shown that he can work in a glass house while a constant storm is raging outside,” a Washington communications consultant and former congressional aide tells Bloomberg. “That ability will serve him well as he steps in to administer TARP.” Fannie Mae's chief operating officer, Michael Williams, is expected to take the reins after Allison departs.
(More Herb Allison stories.)