(Excerpt from the link below)
Yet the Fed was strangely passive and compliant when it came to demanding cooperation and sacrifice from the largest financial institutions. Timothy Geithner was then president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the lead regulator of Wall Streets largest banks. He briefly insisted they must accept the burden of rescuing AIG. But the bankers called his bluff and blew him offand Geithner deferred to their wishes. The taxpayer bailout followed. The episode is relevant to the future, because Geithner is now Obamas Treasury Secretary and in charge of preventing the next taxpayer bailout.
http://www.thenation.com/article/153929/aig-bailout-scandal