Fed to Lend $200 Billion, Take on Mortgage Securities (Update3)

By Scott Lanman



March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve, struggling to contain a crisis of confidence in credit markets, plans to lend up to $200 billion in exchange for mortgage-backed securities.
The Fed coordinated the effort with central banks in Europe and Canada, which plan to inject up to $45 billion into their banking systems. The Fed said in a statement it will hold auctions of Treasuries in exchange for debt including AAA rated mortgage securities sold by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and by banks.
Today's steps indicate the Fed is increasingly concerned about the investor exodus from mortgage debt, which threatens to deepen the housing contraction and the economic slowdown. While they fall short of the calls by some analysts for the Fed to make outright purchases of mortgage debt, the central bank left the door open to expanding the effort.
``This is the most significant step the Fed has taken so far,'' said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. ``This relieves some of the pressure'' in the credit markets, he said.
Today's steps are the latest in Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's effort to alleviate increasing strains in financial markets that are curtailing credit to homeowners and companies, even after the Fed lowered its main interest rate by 2.25 percentage points.
Last week, the Fed said it would make up to $200 billion available to banks in a separate initiative to help boost liquidity.
New Tool
The Fed today set up a new tool, the Term Securities Lending Facility, to lend Treasuries to primary dealers for 28- day periods through weekly auctions. The Fed also said it's increasing the amount of dollars available to European central banks through swap lines.
The Federal Open Market Committee authorized increasing currency swap lines with the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank to $30 billion and $6 billion, respectively, increasing the ECB's line by $10 billion and the Swiss line by $2 billion. The Fed extended the swaps through Sept. 30.
The ECB announced it will lend banks in Europe up to $15 billion for 28 days and the SNB announced a similar auction of up to $6 billion. The Bank of England will offer $20 billion of three-month loans on March 18 and hold another auction on April 15. The Bank of Canada announced plans to purchase $4 billion of securities for 28 days.
Treasuries slid after the announcement, with yields on 10- year notes rising to 3.60 percent at 10:32 a.m. in New York, from 3.46 percent late yesterday.
Rate Expectations
Traders removed bets on the Fed to lower its benchmark rate by a full percentage point, to 2 percent, by the end of the next meeting on March 18, futures showed. The contracts indicate a 60 percent chance of a 0.75 percentage-point reduction.
The Fed's auctions of Treasuries, which will begin March 27, may be secured by collateral including agency and private residential mortgage-backed securities, the Fed said. The central bank ``will consult with primary dealers on technical design features'' of the new tool.
Primary dealers are a group of 20 banks and securities firms that trade Treasuries directly with the Fed Bank of New York.
To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Lanman in Washington at slanman@bloomberg.net Last Updated: March 11, 2008 10:33 EDT