The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it has disbursed $5 billion in government aid aimed at supporting the suppliers of struggling auto giants General Motors (GM) and Chrysler.

The payments were made on Thursday to a pair of special purpose entities that will be used to stabilize payments to the suppliers. A special purpose company related to GM received $3.5 billion while a special purpose company related to Chrysler received $1.5 billion.

Five billion dollars is the maximum allocated through the Troubled Asset Relief Program for assistance to parts makers.

Also in its report, the Treasury said it provided an additional $22.79 million in capital to five banks on Friday, bringing the total amount of government capital provided to U.S. banks to $198.85 billion.

 
   -By Meena Thiruvengadam, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6629; 
meena.thiruvengadam@dowjones.com