Both the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and a group of global commercial and investment banks announced a series of actions designed to ensure financial market liquidity, amid news that several large financial institutions are on the brink of failing, or being bought out.

The consortium of banks includes Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.

The Fed announced Sunday that the parties are:

> working together to maximize market liquidity through their mutual commitment to their ongoing trading relationships, dealer credit terms and capital committed to markets;

> each committing US$7 billion to establish a collateralized borrowing facility, which will be available to these institutions up to a maximum of one third of the facility for any one bank; and

> working to to help facilitate an orderly resolution of OTC derivatives exposures between Lehman Brothers and its counterparties.

At the same time, the Fed announced several initiatives to provide additional support to financial markets, including enhancements to its existing liquidity facilities.

The Fed announced that its Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF)will now accept the types of collateral that can be pledged in the tri-party repo systems of the two major clearing banks. Previously, collateral had been limited to investment-grade debt securities.

Also, the collateral for the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) has been expanded to include all investment-grade debt securities. Previously, only Treasury securities, agency securities, and AAA-rated mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities could be pledged.

The Fed noted that these changes “represent a significant broadening in the collateral accepted under both programs and should enhance the effectiveness of these facilities in supporting the liquidity of primary dealers and financial markets more generally.”

It is also increasing the frequency of so-called Schedule 2 TSLF auctions to weekly from bi-weekly, and boosting the size of these auctions to US$150 billion from US$125 billion. Amounts offered in Schedule 1 auctions will remain at a total of US$50 billion.

The 10 banks said that they intend to utilize the PDCF beginning this week. “These actions reflect the extraordinary market environment,” they said. “The banks are committed to continuing to work closely with one another as well as the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, governments and regulators around the world, and other market participants, to ensure the industry is doing everything it can to provide additional liquidity and assurance to our capital markets and banking system.”

IE