White House: 8 percent of toxic asset plan from private

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 8 percent of the funds for a government plan to deal with toxic bank assets will come from the private sector, White House economic adviser Christina Romer said on Monday.

"It's more like say 7, or 8 percent is going to be coming from the private sector. But certainly the government is going to be a big part of it," she said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

The government is offering generous financing for private investors as part of a plan to purge banks of up to $1 trillion in toxic assets.

"This is one more piece," Romer said. "It's also not going to be the only piece."

The government will look at the big banks to see if they need more capital, she said.

In the latest toxic assets program, Treasury will put in $75 billion to $100 billion to launch the partnerships with the private sector, taking the money from the $700 billion financial rescue fund Congress approved in October.

Romer said the market for "these so-called toxic assets has basically disappeared" and the government is coming in to try to recreate that market.

"It is going to be an open bid. That's part of why we're going in with the private sector," she said. "They're going to have money on the line just like we are and the whole idea is to make sure we don't overpay for them."

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Bill Trott)