FACTBOX: Government actions to limit toxic asset damage

(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel chairs a meeting of top government officials on Tuesday to discuss Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck's idea to remove toxic assets from bank balance sheets.

Following are details of action taken by other countries:

* BRITAIN:

-- Launched a 500 billion pounds asset protection scheme (APS) on February 26. To run for at least five years and cover banks against losses on their riskiest assets.

-- Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) to put a combined 585 billion pounds of assets into the scheme. Banks to incur "first loss" on the assets and pay a fee.

* GERMANY:

-- Plans a definitive bad bank plan before July break.

-- Prefers a decentralised solution, rather than one central "bad bank."

-- Steinbrueck has said if all the toxic assets were in a single bad bank it would cost taxpayers more than 200 billion euros (178 billion pounds), which he could not justify.

-- This suggests lenders saddled with troublesome assets could end up housing them in individual vehicles, possibly in return for government guarantees on these assets.

-- Steinbrueck has also sought to differentiate between "toxic assets" and those suffering temporary liquidity problems.

* IRELAND:

-- Ireland said on April 7 it would create an asset management firm to buy up to 80-90 billion euros in bad loans.

-- A new National Asset Management Agency to buy the assets at discount to book value by issuing government bonds to banks.

-- Would remove the loans off lenders' balance sheets, freeing them up to focus on "good banking."

-- Banks would have to assume significant losses when the loans are removed from their books. If such losses resulted in the banks needing more capital, then the government would insist on taking an equity stake in the lenders.

* RUSSIA:

-- May separate "toxic" assets from banks' balance sheets.

-- First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the idea of setting up a special vehicle to collect sour assets from commercial banks carried corruption risks.

-- Experts said they presented Shuvalov with two solutions for the banking sector woes -- a recapitalisation of banks using special non-tradable government securities and an acquisition of bad assets from commercial banks by a state entity.

* SWITZERLAND:

-- No universal asset protection plan, but the Swiss National Bank agreed in October to remove $60 billion (41.2 billion pounds) of toxic assets from UBS's (UBSN.VX)(UBS.N) balance sheet, though in February this was reduced to $39.1 billion.

* UNITED STATES:

-- On March 23, government offered incentives for private investors to help rid banks of up to $1 trillion in bad assets.

-- The U.S. Treasury said it would initially use $75 billion to $100 billion from existing financial rescue funds.

-- Under one part of the plan focussed on sopping up bad loans, the Treasury will provide up to 80 percent of the initial capital and the FDIC would offer debt financing for up to six times of the combined public-private capital pool.

-- A separate component, aimed at toxic securities, will have the Federal Reserve broaden its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. That $200 billion programme will be bumped up to $1 trillion and will begin accepting older mortgage-related and other securities as loan collateral.

-- Fixed-income manager BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) said on April 14 it would raise $5 billion to $7 billion to buy toxic assets from U.S. financial institutions under the government programme.

-- Asset managers have until April 24 to apply to take part in the Securities Public-Private Investment Funds Program.

* REST OF WESTERN EUROPE:

-- Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said on April 17 that an economic recovery remained dependent on solving the problem of toxic assets on banks' balance sheets.

-- A meeting of European Union leaders on March 1 had resulted in broad agreement on the treatment of toxic assets.

-- French president said it would be the choice of each state to support its banks and to decide what assets are eligible within a broad European framework.

* AUSTRIA/EASTERN EUROPE:

-- Austria and eastern Europe have said that schemes like a "bad bank" or toxic asset plan are not necessary as they have a relatively small exposure to toxic structured credit assets.

(Compiled by Steve Slater, Sumeet Desai and Boris Groendahl; Writing by Jijo Jacob; Additional writing and editing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit. Editing by Simon Jessop)