Geithner to Remain Treasury Chief

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told President Barack Obama that he intends to stay on the job, Treasury said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

"Secretary Geithner has let the president know that he plans to stay on in his position at Treasury," Assistant Treasury Secretary Jenni LeCompte said. "He looks forward to the important work ahead on the challenges facing our great country."

Geithner had indicated he might leave after a debt-limit increase was approved, but administration officials indicated that both Obama and the White House chief of staff had urged Geithner not to leave now. The announcement lands as a debt crisis on both sides of the Atlantic rises to a boil. European officials are struggling to prevent financial turmoil from spreading from the periphery to core economies such as Italy's, while officials in Washington will seek to minimize fallout from a stunning debt downgrade on Friday. Geithner, the last of Obama's original economic team to remain in office, is no stranger to economic storms. In his previous job as president of the New York Federal Reserve, he played a central role in the government's response to the housing market collapse and credit crunch of 2007-2009.

He has headed Treasury since January 2009 and has been involved in all of the administration's key economic decisions.