Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland each borrowed at least $US30 billion ($29 billion) in 2008 from a Federal Reserve emergency lending program whose details weren't revealed to shareholders, members of Congress or the public.
The $US80 billion initiative, called single-tranche open-market operations, or ST OMO, made 28-day loans from March through December 2008, a period in which confidence in global credit markets collapsed after the September 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings.
Units of 20 banks were required to bid at auctions for the cash. They paid interest rates as low as 0.01 per cent that December, when the Fed's main lending facility charged 0.5 per cent.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/feds-secret-loans-to-banking-giants-revealed-20110526-1f5zb.html#ixzz1NYNu4vGB
No comments:
Post a Comment