WASHINGTON - Ever need a college loan? You've probably pored through the notorious eight-page FAFSA application. A likely home buyer? Try the five-page Uniform Residential Loan Application.

But what if you're a bank looking for a few billion from the federal government's new Capital Purchase Program?

Two pages.

That's all the nation's financial institutions had to fill out to request money from the government's $700 billion Trouble Asset Relief Program. In fact, the first page only requires bank contact information.

For some lawmakers and watchdog groups, the simple request form has become a symbol of a government financial bailout plan in need of more accountability and oversight.

"When student lenders and mortgage companies ask more questions in lending thousands of dollars than the federal government does when it injects billions of dollars worth of capital, we should all be concerned," said Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee.

That said, the application process is not particularly easy. Applicants had to submit their forms by Nov. 14 to banking regulators, who have access to vast amounts of data about the banks seeking the money. Those regulators are generally well-acquainted with the applicants and then make a recommendation to the Treasury on whether to provide the capital infusion or not.

"The application starts the process, it's not the end of the process," said Brian Olasov, a former Wall Street banker and now managing director at McKenna Long & Aldridge, an Atlanta-based law firm.

"Either the Treasury or the primary regulator reserves the right to come back to the bank and ask additional questions," Olasov said. What's more, if a bank gets preliminary approval, it also must provide a security purchase agreement and a warrant agreement - paperwork that far exceeds the original two-page application.

The money comes from a $250 billion fund within the Troubled Asset Relief Program that was designed to provide a capital infusion to banks in hopes that would loosen up lending. So far, 87 financial institutions have received money, ranging from $2 million to $25 billion. Banks can request from 1 percent to 3 percent of their assets.