WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve, declaring that increased economic uncertainty poses risks for U.S. business growth, announced Friday that it has approved a half-percentage point cut in its discount rate on loans to banks.
The action was the most dramatic effort yet by the central bank to restore calm to global financial markets which have been roiled in the past week by a widening credit crisis.The decision means that the discount rate, the interest rate that the Fed charges to make direct loans to banks will be lowered to 5.75 percent, down from 6.25 percent.
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PARIS (AP) — A major French bank, BNP Paribas, announced Thursday that it was suspending three of its asset-backed securities funds, saying it could no longer value them accurately because of problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.The announcement by the bank’s BNP Paribas Investment Partners unit sent shock waves through an already sensitive money market.
The bank, France’s largest bank by market value, said it was suspending three funds worth a total of 2 billion euros ($2.75 billion): Parvest Dynamic ABS, BNP Paribas ABS Euribor and BNP Paribas ABS Eonia. All funds combined at BNP Paribas Investment Partners are worth more than 350 billion euros ($482.79 billion).
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Filed under Mortgage News, Finance, Credit, Secondary Mortgage Market, Mortgage Blog, Bond Market, subprime meltdown, Lending guidelines, credit crunch, Alt-A Mortgage, Lenders, Liquidity Crisis by Godfather
Defaults are ripping through the entire mortgage bond industry at the fastest pace in years.
Investors hold about $6.5 trillion in mortgage bonds, the world’s largest such fixed-income market, says the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association.
Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Chris Cox said the SEC is coming up with new, more flexible accounting rule interpretations that companies and others could use to avoid declaring their mortgage securities in default.
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Last week the Dow Jones industrial average fell 4.2%, the steepest drop since March 2003. Financial shares took a beating on growing evidence that problems in the sub-prime mortgage market are spreading, making financing the corporate buy-outs that drove the market’s rally more difficult.
Many financial market participants are of the view that there is a definite deterioration in credit conditions, which means less liquidity for private equity, stock buy-backs, and business expansion. Fed officials, however, have downplayed this claim.
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