Four insurance companies applied Friday to become thrift holding companies and acquire savings and loans, which opens the door for them to seek bailout funds.

Friday was the deadline to apply for funding from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Any bank, savings association, bank holding company or savings and loan holding company established and operating in the United States was eligible to apply for some amount of capital from the bailout plan. Insurers and foreign-controlled entities were not included.

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Lincoln National Corp., Genworth Financial Inc. and Aegon NV all submitted applications to become holding companies to the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) on Friday.

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