Big US banks have been issued swine flu vaccines that were meant for priority groups.

The banks, already been bailed out by US taxpayers as they teetered on the brink in the wake of the global financial crisis, were issued with the H1N1 vaccines after a decision by local officials in New York, according to .

The Obama administration is contacting state and local officials to reinforce that H1N1 vaccine should be used for high-risk groups first following a report that some of New York's biggest companies got supplies, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The head of the Centres for Disease Control "is sending a letter to every state and city receiving vaccine to reiterate that vaccine should be going to priority groups," Gibbs said.

He was responding to a question about a report in that companies such as Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group got small quantities of the vaccine in the past week.