Influenced by the negative news from Wall Street giants such as Lehman Brothers, on Tuesday, the funds in the inter-bank market in the United States were seriously tight, and the inter-bank lending activities in US dollars almost stopped.
According to market sources, the overnight borrowing cost of banks in US dollars soared to more than 65,438+00% on Tuesday, which was more than five times the target of US federal funds interest rate. According to Reuters's data, the interest rate on overnight US dollar deposits was as high as 9% on Tuesday, but market participants said that the bank's "reluctance to lend" led to the transaction interest rate actually reaching double digits.
The similar situation is not only in the United States, but also in the interbank lending market in Europe. French Economy Minister Lagarde said on Tuesday that the tension caused by the global financial crisis will push up the cost of credit in Europe in the coming weeks.
Whitney, a well-known analyst of Oppenheimer Fund, an American investment company, pointed out that the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the acquisition of Merrill Lynch will lead to a sharp decline in the liquidity of the credit market. She said that the banking industry is facing a major and lasting wave of asset write-downs and capital pressure, which will last until 2009.
Insiders noticed that Libor/OIS spread, which is used to measure the capital adequacy ratio of the money market, expanded by 4 basis points to 109 basis points yesterday, the highest level since 5438+0,65438+February 2006, indicating that the liquidity situation continues to deteriorate.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Darling said on Tuesday that global central banks must act together to support financial markets at a time when the current global market turmoil continues.
Darling said that market turmoil is almost inevitable after the bankruptcy of a large investment bank like Lehman Brothers, but the bigger problem facing the government is how to lead the financial system through the crisis.
Darling said that international action is needed and other central banks must help. "We need to take action on a global scale, and this is what we have done. This means that all central banks need to support the market. " He said that on a global scale, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan all intervened in the market this week.
Central banks have injected capital.
In order to alleviate the market liquidity shortage that may be caused by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the Federal Reserve announced a series of new measures to expand liquidity on Sunday, including expanding the collateral range of financial institutions' loans from the Federal Reserve and increasing the auction of some loans from once every two weeks to once a week.
According to the latest plan, the total amount of the credit arrangement that the Federal Reserve tslf II plans to auction will increase from $654.38+02.5 billion to $654.38+05 billion. The total credit arrangement of tslf auction will increase from $654.38+075 billion to $200 billion.
At the same time, the Federal Reserve also presided over the convening of the top ten banks in many countries around the world to launch a $70 billion emergency fund, which participating institutions can use to tide over the difficulties when necessary. These institutions include Bank of America, Barclays Group, Citigroup, Swiss Bank and Deutsche Bank.
Participating banks will receive at most one-third of the total size of the fund. As other banks are allowed to join, the total size of the fund may expand.
On June 5438+05, major European central banks also followed the pace of the Federal Reserve's rescue. In the past two days, the bank has continuously injected capital into the market, totaling 654.38+00 billion euros (about 654.38+04 billion US dollars). The demand of European banks for overnight funds rose to 654.38+002.48 billion euros. The European Central Bank also announced that it is "ready to help the euro currency market maintain an orderly operation".
The Bank of England, which provided an emergency loan of 5 billion pounds at a benchmark interest rate of 5% on Monday, said on Tuesday that it would inject 20 billion pounds (36 billion US dollars) into the market in a two-day repurchase operation at 0845 GMT to cope with the short-term tension in the money market. The interest rate for this operation is 5%. At the same time, the central bank issued a statement saying that the authorities "will take action to ensure that the overnight lending rate is close to the target interest rate of the central bank" and that "the Bank of England is closely monitoring the market situation with other central banks".
In addition, the Bank of Japan injected 2.5 trillion yen (US$ 24 billion) into the market in the past two days, and banks in Australia and Switzerland also injected nearly US$10 billion into the financial system.
Politicians from all over the world shouted with confidence
At the same time of capital injection, government officials from various countries have also come forward to appease investors. US President Bush said on June 5438+05 that the US economy is healthy enough to withstand the impact of the financial market crisis. In the long run, he said, "I believe that our capital market is flexible and resilient and can cope with these adjustments." US Treasury Secretary Timothy Henry Merritt Paulson also said at the White House briefing that the US financial system is "healthy and resilient". He also said that he is currently cooperating with all parties and will introduce new measures to ensure the stability and order of the financial market.
Canadian Prime Minister Harper said on June 5438+05 that although the US financial market was turbulent, the US economy showed good flexibility. A spokesman for the Bank of Canada also said on the same day that Canada's financial system is good and will inject capital into the financial system if necessary.
Weber 15, member of the European Central Bank Management Committee and governor of the German central bank, said that Germany's financial system as a whole is stable and has strong ability to resist external shocks, so it is not worried about problems in the German banking industry.
French Finance Minister Lagarde said that the French authorities are paying close attention to the financial market trends in the United States. She believes that the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers has limited impact on the French financial industry.
Germany: government aid: In June 5438+10, a 500 billion euro rescue plan was launched to stabilize the financial market; On10.5, the government adopted the economic revitalization plan named "promoting growth and ensuring employment" and adopted/kloc-0.5 measures; In February 65438, an economic incentive plan of 3 1 billion euros was approved to prevent the economy from slipping into a deep recession. According to the financial market stabilization plan launched by the German government, the government will provide guarantees for loans between German banks, totaling 400 billion euros. In addition, a special fund of 80 billion euros will be set up to help banks increase their own capital.
Japan: government and central bank freeze stocks
According to the latest news on the website of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, in the context of the global stock market crash, the Japanese government and the central bank will temporarily freeze their shares in financial institutions and suspend their sales to avoid bringing more pressure to the market. It is reported that from 2002 to 2006, in order to solve the problem of huge bad debts faced by Japanese financial institutions at that time, the government and the central bank bought shares in large banks totaling about 2 trillion yen. Since 2006, these stocks have gradually entered the market.
Britain: It will inject capital into the country's three major banks.
On June 5438+03, the British government announced that it planned to invest up to 37 billion pounds (US$ 62.9 billion) in Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax Bank and Lloyds Bank to help them get rid of the financial crisis.
"In view of the continuing unusual turmoil in the global financial market, the British government took decisive measures today ... to make commercial investments in British banks," the British Treasury said in a statement on the same day.
Royal Bank of Scotland said in a statement that it would increase its capital by 20 billion pounds ($34 billion). Among them, the government will invest 5 billion pounds (8.5 billion dollars) to buy preferred shares, and another 654.38 billion pounds (25.5 billion dollars) of shares will be sold to investors and underwritten by the government.
The Ministry of Finance said that after the successful merger of Halifax Bank and Rice Bank, they will also join the British government's bank rescue plan.
The bailed-out banks must meet some conditions, including ensuring that the loan scale for homeowners and small businesses remains at the level of 2007, limiting the salary of senior executives and accepting new board members appointed by the government.