Report: Treasury plans expanding bailout

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. government is planning to dramatically widen the scope of its financial bailout effort beyond the banking sector, officials say.

The government was said to be preparing to take tens of billions of dollars in ownership stakes in a wide array of non-banking companies.

This would be beyond the $250 billion the U.S. Treasury Department has set aside for traditional financial firms, The Washington Post said, quoting government and industry officials.

While an official announcement is not expected at least until the end of next week, treasury officials are said to be completing plans for the new program, which the Post said could ultimately involve hundreds of billions of the $700 billion rescue package.

Since the announcement of plans to inject capital into banks, a number of industries, including automakers, insurers and specialty lenders for small businesses, have asked to be included.