By Joseph Plocek & Yali n’Diaye
WASHINGTON (MNI) – The Federal Reserve Board, whose hand was forced
by unfavorable judgements in lawsuits filed by Fox News and Bloomberg
LLP, Thursday released thousands of pages of raw data from borrowing
records during the financial crisis.
In response to the Freedom of Information Act rulings, the data was
supplied to media on computer disks that reproduced internal
documentation for borrowing under the discount window and special
lending programs, and covered the period up to January 2009. The two
CD-ROMs each contained 894 PDF files for reporters to parse.
The Fed has never before revealed identities of borrowers, although
the Dodd-Frank legislation last year required the Fed to release details
of emergency lending programs, including names.
In the interests of filing this report in a timely manner, before
all the files were examined, Market News International studied smaller
51-page the file on primary dealer credit from the discount window.
Those data showed, for example, that Citigroup borrowed between $2
and $4 billion in January 2009.
Merrill Lynch, which agreed to a purchase by Bank of America on
September 14, 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, ceased to
exist as a separate entity in January 2009 and subsequently had its
borrowing fall to zero.
Morgan Stanley (London) at times into the credit facility for in
excess of $21 billion, had a mere $3.6 billion in borrowing near the end
of January.
There are many other files in the package and which will provide
analysts with information to mine for weeks to come.
Meanwhile, the “tri-party collateral reports” — only 663 pages —
shows email reports on the collateral posted at the Primary Dealer
Credit Facility, the Term Securities Lending Facility and open market
operations accompanied by highlights.
For instance, through the November 7, 2008 week, “Deutsche,
Goldman, Merrill and Mizuho have stopped pledging CP-CDs to the three
liquidity programs.”
By August 7, 2009, “Barclays continues to be the only user of the
liquidity facilities,” the update shows.
It added that “Barclays’ $3.36 billion of collateral is composed
primarily of Agency MBS (54.23%), ABS (43.63%), Private Label MBS
(1.50%), and CMBS (0.54%).”
Interestingly, the documents showed the Fed accepted securities for
which it did not know the ratings, revealing “gaps” in its own database.
A footnote reads: “Due to an absence of agency ratings and current
gaps in our internal databases, ratings on some types of assets are
unknown. Securities with unknown ratings are labeled “N/A.” They are
principally corporate bonds and municipal bonds.”
Other collaterals were whole loans and foreign sovereign debt: “Due
to current gaps in our internal databases, descriptions of some type of
assets are incomplete. The securities are labeled ‘Other’ and are
principally whole loans and foreign sovereign debt,” the document shows
in a section about the collateral value .
A note from June 26, 2009 shows that ABS is “the most commonly
pledged asset class, accounting for 39.34% of all collateral on June 26.
Agency MBS is the second most commonly pledged asset class at 22.52% of
all collateral. Corporate Bonds are the third most commonly pledged
asset class at 22.17% of all collateral. The remaining 15.97% of
collateral is primarily composed of Private Label MBS (7.47%), CMBS
(5.43%), and Municipal Bonds (1.04%).”
**Market News International Washington Bureau: (202)371-2121**
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