US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has committed a dramatic volte face from the Bush administration’s Wall St bailout plan to purchase toxic subprime mortgages from financial firms.

Mr Paulson announced he is refocusing on shoring up financial institutions with direct investments, shoring up markets for securitized consumer debt such as car loans, student loans and credit cards, as well as prodding banks to speed up the thaw in the country’s credit system.

Financial news organisation Bloomberg has requested the details of who the US Federal Reserve is lending its trillion dollar bailout cash to under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as suing the Fed in a bid to force disclosure.

While Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said in September they’d comply with congressional demands for transparency, to date they have refused to name a single company to receive some of the trillion dollars they have dispersed thus far.