Fed, ECB vow to offset Y2K-style year-end credit squeeze

ByABC News
November 27, 2007, 2:02 AM

— -- he Federal Reserve announced Monday steps to keep cash flowing before banks shut their books at year's end.

The European Central Bank also promised banks extra money to tide them through a likely severe year-end cash squeeze, mirroring action conducted around the turn of the millennium.

The Fed said it would move up the timetable for its regular lending and lengthen the loan periods to banks. It also assured markets that it would keep enough money in the system to maintain its target for short-term interest rates.

Such steps have been taken before, including as recently as 2005, when banks faced pressure to maintain their reserves. But the action Monday drew attention given the unease in financial markets.

"The Fed wants to make absolutely certain that nobody thinks they are going to drop the ball," Action Economics chief economist Michael Englund says.

As fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage collapse spreads and banks hoard cash to offset balance sheet strains, interbank lending rates in euros, dollars and sterling have once again surged to well above central bank targets over the past week forcing the Fed and ECB to assure banks of available funds.

The ECB reiterated its intent to ease the year-end strain, where two-month euro London interbank rates (Libor) are at their highest since 2001 and three-month rates had their biggest one-day jump on Monday since the credit crisis erupted in August.

"The ongoing process of risk appraisal and repricing in financial markets could be more protracted than previously expected and could have a broader impact on financial markets and the economy," ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos said Monday in a speech at the Cypriot central bank.

The Fed later echoed the ECB promise of extra funds and said it would conduct a series of term repurchase agreements extending into the new year, the first for about $8 billion set for Nov 28 and maturing on Jan 10, 2008. Repurchase agreements, or repos, are a form of short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities.