WASHINGTON -- As the biggest market intervention in U.S. history made its way through Congress, Neel Kashkari, the Treasury official named this week to run the program, offered assurances to 800 financial-industry players.

Attempts by Congress to make beneficiaries pay for their mistakes, such as placing caps on executive pay, were "quite reasonable" and "a pretty modest hindrance to you," he told them, according to a recording of the Sept. 28 conference call made public on video-sharing Web site YouTube.

The exchange is a rare inside look at conversations between government officials and industry representatives who help shape government policy. To win approval for the rescue package, Treasury had to agree to a number of conditions imposed by lawmakers, such as the pay caps and moves to help homeowners. But to succeed, Treasury must also win the support of institutions healthy enough to revive faltering capital markets.

The balancing act suggested by the conference call shows how Mr. Kashkari, a 35 year-old former engineer and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, could find himself in a political minefield as he tackles his biggest government job, should he appear to favor the financial sector he hails from at the expense of taxpayers.

"No one doubts that Neel is smart. But he's got to strike a balance here and understand that Democrats on the Hill are going to want to make sure that this program reaches down and helps average Americans," said James F.M. Williams, former Democratic staff director for the Senate Banking Committee's subcommittee on economic policy. Mr. Williams is now a senior vice president at lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations.