Life assurance groups with banking subsidiaries will receive billions of dollars in US government bail-out funds, officials confirmed on Friday, a move experts hope will damp concerns about the financial stability of this sector.

Six companies have been approved for capital injections: Hartford Financial Services, Prudential, Allstate, Ameriprise, Lincoln National and Principal Financial, although Ameriprise turned down the money on Friday. Officials said the insurance groups could receive much of the $22bn (£15bn) remaining in the capital purchase programme, part of the wider $700bn troubled asset relief programme, but cautioned that not all the money would necessarily go to them.