The Treasury Department made a formal announcement this morning stating it will extend a financial bailout to struggling life insurance companies, Reuters reported. The statement was in response to an article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal this morning that cited people familiar with the matter.

“There are a number of life insurers that have met requirements for the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) because of their bank holding company status,” said Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams. “These are among the hundreds of financial institutions in the CPP pipeline that will be reviewed and funded as appropriate on a rolling basis.”

Life insurers such as Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group Inc., Prudential Financial Inc., Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. have already applied for Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds from the federal government. Williams said the life insurers have met the requirements for government funding, and their applications for bailout funds are now being considered.

The Treasury Department confirmed that that only insurers owning federally chartered banks will qualify for the program. However, Williams said any capital investments in insurers that have bank holding company status would not constitute a new rescue program.

MetLife Inc., the largest publicly traded insurer by assets that owned a federally chartered bank before the crisis struck, has not commented on whether it has applied for TARP funds.

However, not all life insurers are requesting a federal bailout. For instance, New York Life Insurance Co., Mutual Life Insurance Co., Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and TIAA-CREF all maintain triple-A ratings.