They can reduce the obligations on their balance sheets, however, by shifting them to reinsurers.
The effort aims to address complaints about lenders that charge huge fees but fail to reduce the obligations of customers in debt.
Among the suggestions were writing new agreements that would reduce the obligations for future payments, and using directors' and officers' insurance to control legal outlays.
Infrastructure investments, even if not immediately paid for with new revenue sources, can easily contribute to reductions in long-term debt-to-income ratios because they spur economic growth, raise long-run capacity, and reduce the obligations of future generations.
A second benefit is that recognizing the costs of guaranteeing too-influential-to-fail institutions might reduce the ultimate obligation and persuade regulators and lawmakers to force those institutions to cut back on risk-taking.
Ms. Bair, who has publicly broken ranks with the Bush administration, is proposing that the Treasury use $24.4 billion from the bailout program to help refinance and reduce the mortgage obligations of people who are delinquent on their payments and in danger of losing their homes.
So they hire consultants to audit the plans, and find ways to reduce the payout obligations and squeeze the plans for profit".
While the former reform would reduce the size of the obligation years in the future, the latter takes money away from promises that are currently coming due.
The challenge is particularly daunting in France, which has done less to reduce the state's obligations than some of its neighbors.
The local council, Haringey, desperately keen to keep Spurs investing £400m in a deprived area, agreed last year to reduce the club's obligations towards transport and other community improvements, originally part of planning permission for the new stadium, from £16.4m down to £0.5m.
