The Treasury has finally released the details on their Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) aimed at taking toxic assets off of bank balance sheets. Investors are cheering this announcement as they have been eagerly awaiting these details since the program was first announced 2 months ago.

Details of the Geithner plan have been leaked to the press and according to the New York Times they are comprised of three key proposals. “The plan to be announced next week involves three separate approaches. In one, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will set up special-purpose investment partnerships and lend about 85 percent of the money that those partnerships will need to buy up troubled assets that banks want to sell. In the second, the Treasury will hire four or five investment management firms, matching the private money that each of the firms puts up on a dollar-for-dollar basis with government money. In the third piece, the Treasury plans to expand lending through the Term Asset-Backed Secure Lending Facility, a joint venture with the Federal Reserve.”

Euro, pound and Aussies were all higher at the start of European trade boosted by improved sentiment towards risk as equity markets across the region rallied by more than 1.5% starting the third day of the week on a somewhat brighter note. Part of the reason for today’s optimism has to do with reports that President Obama’s stimulus plan has a provision to establish a “bad bank” that would acquire up to $1 Trillion worth of toxic US assets.