U.S. Treasury says pay will not increase for Ally Financial CEO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is holding the total compensation unchanged this year for the head of bailed-out auto lender Ally Financial (NYS:ALLY PR B), the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

"The CEO compensation package payable by Ally Financial has not increased," the Treasury said in a statement, adding that the overall amount of compensation for the company's chief executive officer has been unchanged since 2010.

Michael Carpenter has been Ally Financial's CEO since 2009, according to the company's website.

U.S. taxpayers bailed out Ally, along with much of the U.S. financial and auto sectors, under a $700 billion program enacted in 2008 to fight a financial crisis and recession. Ally and a clutch of other firms had to agree to pay restrictions set by Washington because they received outsized aid.

Over the last few years, the Treasury has sold shares in most of the firms it bailed out. Taxpayers have recouped nearly all of the $423 billion that was spent under the bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Ally is the last firm with compensation packages set by the administration, although the Treasury said last week it would sell most of its remaining Ally shares.

The Treasury has been criticized in the past for alleged laxity in pay restrictions on the company's executives. An internal Treasury watchdog last year criticized the department's authorization of pay hikes for executives at Ally and at General Motors (GM.N) and AIG (AIG.N), which were also bailed out under TARP.

On Wednesday, the Treasury said it was keeping cash compensation for Ally's top 25 executives unchanged. Most of their compensation, however, is in stocks, which the Treasury says makes their pay performance-based.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by James Dalgleish and Dan Grebler)