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Negócios.pt Escreveu:O Congresso ordenou e a Fed cumpriu.

O banco central norte-americano revelou hoje os nomes dos beneficiários de ajuda financeira entre 1 de Dezembro de 2007 e 21 de Julho de 2010.

A Reserva Federal norte-americana, a mando do Congresso, divulgou hoje os nomes das entidades que receberam 3,3 biliões [trillion na métrica anglo-saxónica] de dólares em ajudas destinadas a travar o pior movimento de pânico dos mercados financeiros desde a Grande Depressão.

A Fed divulga hoje os dados no seu “website”, de forma a harmonizar-se com a decisão da lei Dodd-Frank, de Julho passado, que reformou a regulação financeira.

A informação - que inclui também os montantes das cerca de 21.000 transacções decorridas neste âmbito, bem como as taxas de juro que foram impostas - abrange seis programas de concessão de empréstimos, “swaps” cambiais com outros bancos centrais, compras de activos endossados a hipotecas e os resgates do Bear Stearns e da seguradora American International Group (AIG), refere a Bloomberg.

“A Reserva Federal adoptou práticas sólidas de gestão de risco na gestão de todos estes programas, não incorreu em quaisquer perdas no âmbito dos programas que já foram concluídos e não espera ter perdas com os restantes”, salientou o banco central norte-americano em comunicado.

Ainda assim, sublinha a Bloomberg, a divulgação destes dados poderá aumentar as críticas à Fed, que tem enfrentado alguma contestação desde que a 3 de Novembro passado decidiu adicionar 600 mil milhões de dólares de estímulos monetários à economia. A 17 de Novembro, os principais representantes republicanos no Congresso disseram, numa carta enviada ao presidente da Fed (Ben Bernanke), que esta medida poderá alimentar a inflação e bolhas nos preços dos activos.

“Esta divulgação surge num momento politicamente inoportuno para a Fed”, comentou à Bloomberg uma responsável da Brookings Institution, Sarah Binder, cuja investigação se focaliza no relacionamento do Congresso com a Reserva Federal. “Precisamente numa altura em que Bernanke está a tentar defender a Fed das críticas dos republicanos relativamente às suas compras de activos, reabrem-se as feridas com que a Reserva Federal ficou devido à crise financeira.

Os dados hoje revelados pormenorizam a dimensão do apoio do banco central, que foi concedido não só a entidades bancárias mas também a empresas como a General Electric.

Dois anos e meio de ajudas e resgates

Esta informação diz respeito às ajudas concedidas entre 1 de Dezembro de 2007 e 21 de Julho de 2010, quando o presidente Barack Obama promulgou a lei Dodd-Frank – que visa a divulgação dos nomes das empresas que receberam ajudas da Fed.

Os congressistas há muito que exigiam a divulgação destes dados, tendo assim levado a melhor sobre as objecções da Fed. A Reserva Federal comprou obrigações de curto prazo às empresas, activos de risco ao Bearn Stearns e mais de um bilião de dólares em dívida imobiliária norte-americana.

Entre os programas de emergência que foram accionados contam-se, entre outros, o famoso programa governamental de resgate de activos tóxicos (TARP – Troubled Asset Relief Program), um programa que concedeu milhares de milhões de dólares em crédito a pequenas empresas, estudantes e detentores de cartões de crédito (TALF - Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility), bem como o Term Auction Facility (TAF) – que ajudou a banca a conseguir financiamento mais barato.

Bernanke estendeu as fronteiras dos poderes da Fed, ao recorrer à secção 13(3) da Federal Reserve Act, que lhe permitiu ajudar entidades não-bancárias, “em circunstâncias invulgares e exigentes”.

"Discount window" ainda em tribunal

O Congresso não incluiu na obrigação de divulgação, pela Fed, a chamada “discount window” (janela de desconto), uma vez que o banco central norte-americano é alvo de um processo em tribunal, desde 2008, intentado pela Bloomberg, que visa que a Reserva Federal identifique os beneficiários deste programa, que em Outubro de 2008 atingiu um pico de 110,7 mil milhões de dólares.

Recorde-se que a “discount window” é um instrumento de política monetária através do qual as entidades financeiras em situação de aperto podem pedir dinheiro emprestado ao banco central, a curto prazo.

A “discount window” foi um dos primeiros instrumentos a que o presidente da Fed, Ben Bernanke, recorreu para facilitar as condições de financiamento ao mercado bancário quando a crise do crédito começou a intensificar-se.

Em Agosto de 2007, a Fed estendeu a maturidade dos empréstimos “discount window” para 30 dias e em Março de 2008 alargou-a para 90 dias, de forma a impulsionar a liquidez nos mercados de financiamento interbancário, depois do quase colapso do Bear Stearns naquele mês. O Bear Stearns acabou por ser fundido com o JPMorgan Chase, com o apoio da Fed.

By Chris Isidore, senior writerDecember 1, 2010: 3:50 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve made $9 trillion in overnight loans to major banks and Wall Street firms during the financial crisis, according to newly revealed data released Wednesday.

The loans were made through a special loan program set up by the Fed in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse in March 2008 to keep the nation's bond markets trading normally.

8Email Print CommentThe amount of cash being pumped out to the financial giants was not previously disclosed. All the loans were backed by collateral and all were paid back with a very low interest rate to the Fed -- an annual rate of between 0.5% to 3.5%.

Still, the total amount was a surprise, even to some who had followed the Fed's rescue efforts closely.

"That's a real number, even for the Fed," said FusionIQ's Barry Ritholtz, author of the book "Bailout Nation." While the fact that the markets were in trouble was already well known, he said the amount of help they needed is still surprising.

"It makes it very clear this was a very serious, very unusual situation," he said.

The Wall Street firm that received the most assistance was Merrill Lynch, which received $2.1 trillion, spread across 226 loans. The firm did not survive the crisis as an independent company, and was purchased by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) just as Lehman Brothers was failing.

Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), which ended up with a majority of its shares owned by the Treasury Department due to a separate federal bailout, was No. 2 on the list with 279 loans totaling $2 trillion. Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) was third with $1.9 trillion coming from 212 loans.

"As we have previously disclosed, Morgan Stanley utilized some of the Federal Reserve's emergency lending facilities during a time of immense financial turmoil throughout the banking sector and the broader market," the firm said in a statement Wednesday. "The Fed's actions were timely and critical, and we commend them for providing liquidity and stabilizing the financial system during that period.''

The largest single loan was by Barclays Capital, which borrowed $50.7 billion on Sept. 18, 2008, in the days after the Lehman bankruptcy.

Some Wall Street firms disputed the way the Fed reported the numbers. An executive from one of the firms said that many of the overnight loans were rolled over for days at a time, and that each day it was counted as a new loan. "It's being double, triple, quadruple counted in some cases," said the executive.

Can our opinion of banks get any worse?
Not all the major banks needed much help from the Fed. JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) received only three loans from this program for a total of $3 billion.

The last loan was made under the program in May 2009, and the program, known as the primary dealer credit facility, was officially discontinued in February of this year.

The Federal Reserve revealed details of that program as part of a large scale release of data on all the steps it took to stabilize the nation's financial sector during the markets crisis of the last few years.

The central bank posted details of more than 21,000 transactions with major banks and Wall Street firms between December of 2007 and July of 2010.

In additional to the loan program for bond dealers, the data covered the Fed's purchases of more $1 trillion in mortgages, and spending to back consumer and small business loans as well as commercial paper used to keep large corporations running.

The rescues of the investment bank Bear Stearns in March of 2008, and insurance behemoth AIG in September of that year, were also revealed in far greater detail, as were programs to make dollars available to foreign central banks in return for their currency, in order to keep international trade flowing.

The Fed's full data
Most of the special programs set up by the Fed in response to the crisis of 2008 have since expired, although it still holds close to $2 trillion in assets it purchased during that time.

The Fed said it did not lose money on any of the transactions that have been closed and it does not expect to lose money on the assets it still holds.

The details of which banks participated in the Fed's emergency programs, and how the banks benefited from the transactions, had never before been revealed.

The Fed argued that revealing the information could cause a run on the banks that needed to draw cash at the discount window. But under the financial regulatory reform act that was passed in July, the Fed will reveal future discount window transactions following a two-year lag.