Paulson says new bank fund is a private deal

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said a multibillion-dollar investment pool announced by major banks on Monday after talks brokered by the Treasury was a private-sector deal.

"This is a private-sector initiative, with private-sector money and private-sector leadership," Paulson told reporters after a National Park Foundation event.

Some analysts have questioned Treasury's involvement in the talks and whether the investment pool would undercut market discipline by allowing banks to offload assets from so-called structured investment vehicles that they would otherwise be forced to sell at prices that could mean a loss.

Paulson said the souring of assets at some SIVs had raised questions about transparency that regulators were now mulling.

"The regulators didn't have clear enough visibility with what was going on in terms of these off-balance-sheet SIVs," said Paulson, who described this as a broad, long-term issue that needed to be addressed.

"At the President's Working Group (on Financial Markets), we are taking a look at some issues there, involving things like regulatory practices and accounting rules, because I do think we are going to need greater transparency," he said.