as a result, tiaa-cref is one of very few financial companies that carry aaa ratings. and during my tenure, the company became the first company in the fortune 100 to allow its stakeholders an advisory role on executive compensation. in september of 2008 i was named ceo of the federal national mortgage association, as that company was placed into government conservatorship. the crisis that devastated fannie mae's liquidity and capital base also threatened millions of american homeowners with foreclosure. new management had to shift the company's focus from maximizing profit and market share to helping hard-pressed american families stay in their homes. as a result fannie mae is the agent for the president's home affordable refinance and modification programs which offer financial relief to millions of americans. members of the committee, the financial stability program is essential to president obama's and secretary geithner's plans for recovery. our economy declined sharply last year, in part because credit stopped flowing. without access to credit, small businesses c

. >> obviously at merrill and fannie and tiaa-cref. give us the background.because it seems every time we turn around there's a new program with the t.a.r.p. program and it's getting more and more complex in understanding how the resources are being used. give us some sense of how you would approach this. >> yes, sir. thank you very much for the question. actually one of my first steps as i joined the treasury was to contact the special inspector general, neil barofsky, and ask to meet with him. we've been meeting every week since. i think he plays a very important role in protecting american taxpayers, and i want to do all i can to work with him going forward. as you well said, this is an extremely complex and very large program. it requires vigilant control. one of my first acts will be to meet with our people in compliance as well as our own internal audit people. people in the legal area, to re-examine all of our controls over the financial stability programs. secondly, we are building our information systems even further so we can monitor the performance