The U.S. pay czar is vowing bonuses worth $100 million that AIG is scheduled to pay employees Wednesday will be the last.

The vow from Ken Feinberg came even as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the funds can be recouped through a new tax on banks.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called the AIG bonuses 'outrageous' on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

American International Group Inc. is set to pay out about $100 million in a fresh round of bonuses to employees.

The payments will be made Wednesday to employees in the firm's financial products unit, which was the epicentre of the company's woes.

Public anger over bailouts has been palpable since the economic slowdown began in late 2008. AIG was a particular whipping boy since Washington used $180 billion of public funds to bail out the troubled firm.

But the payments are contractual obligations entered into years ago, Feinberg said Wednesday. Company executives have already pledged to repay $39 million US out of $45 million paid in previous rounds of bonuses, he noted.

The last round of retention bonuses is scheduled to be repaid in March, and strict new rules will be in effect after that, he told ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday.

"It ends this March with the last of these retention payments. These are the old grandfathered payments…. Another month or so, these old, guaranteed bonuses will be a thing of the past," Feinberg said.

Geithner said Congress can recoup the "outrageous" bonuses through a new bank fee in President Barack Obama's proposed budget. Geithner called the bonuses, which were negotiated years ago, an "outrageous failure of policy."

Geithner on Wednesday asked the House ways and means committee to support the new fee as a way of getting the money back. The fee, which would be assessed on certain liabilities of the largest firms in the financial sector, would raise about $90 billion over the next decade.

Bank of America bonuses emerge

A report Wednesday suggested Bank of America is on pace to pay out $4.4 billion US worth of bonuses to employees this year, an average of $400,000 US each.

The firm has raised the ire of lawmakers and voters over news that it allowed Merrill Lynch & Co. to quietly pay out $3.6 billion US in premature bonuses just before it was bought out by Bank of America.

With files from The Associated Press