U.S. banks borrow $20 billion from Fed at 4.65%
10:02 AM ET, Dec 19, 2007 - By Rex Nutting - 12 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. banks have borrowed $20 billion from the Federal Reserve for 28 days at 4.65%, the Fed announced Wednesday. It was the first of several planned auctions of short-term credits to alleviate a liquidity crunch in credit markets. A total of 93 banks bid in the auction on Monday, asking for $61.6 billion. The bid-to-cover ratio was 3.08. At 4.65%, the stop-out interest rate for the auction offered a 10 basis point discount from the Fed's discount window rate of 4.75% and 28 basis points below the prevailing interbank lending rate of 4.93%. The loans are fully collateralized and will be repaid on Jan. 17.
