Consortium of Global Commercial and Investment Banks Takes Series of Actions to Help Enhance Liquidity and Mitigate Unprecedented Volatility in Capital Markets

bwire






NEW YORK (Business Wire) -- A group of global commercial and investment banks, including Bank
of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman
Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, today
initiated a series of actions to help enhance liquidity and mitigate
the unprecedented volatility and other challenges affecting global
equity and debt markets. Specifically, the banks are working together
to do the following:


-- First, to assist in maximizing market liquidity through their
mutual commitment to their ongoing trading relationships,
dealer credit terms and capital committed to markets.


-- Second, to establish a collateralized borrowing facility,
which ten banks (Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit
Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill
Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS) have committed to fund for $7
billion each ($70 billion in total). The facility will be
available to these participating institutions for liquidity up
to a maximum of one third of the facility for any one bank. It
is anticipated that the size of the facility may increase as
other banks are permitted to join the facility.


-- Third, to help facilitate an orderly resolution of OTC
derivatives exposures between Lehman Brothers and its
counterparties. This effort included opening the OTC
derivatives market for trading this Sunday afternoon.


These cooperative efforts will be enhanced by the Federal Reserve
Board's decision to accept expanded classes of collateral under the
Primary Dealers Credit Facility, including equities. All participating
banks intend to utilize this facility beginning this week.


These actions reflect the extraordinary market environment. The
banks are committed to continuing to work closely with one another as
well as the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the
Securities and Exchange Commission, governments and regulators around
the world, and other market participants, to ensure the industry is
doing everything it can to provide additional liquidity and assurance
to our capital markets and banking system.


For media inquiries, please contact the Media Relations offices at
the consortium banks.



Media Relations:

Bank of America:

980-388-9921

or

Barclays:

212-412-7576

or

Citibank:

212-793-0710

or

Credit Suisse:

212-325-5200

or

Deutsche Bank:

212-250-7171

or

Goldman Sachs:

212-902-5400

or

JP Morgan:

212-270-4435

or

Merrill Lynch:

212-449-7295

or

Morgan Stanley:

212-762-7064

or

UBS:

212-882-5857