US Fed loaned Libya-backed bank billions

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Federal Reserve lent a Libyan state-backed bank billions of dollars during the financial crisis, documents made public on Thursday have revealed.

The Arab Bank Corporation, which is today 59.3 percent owned by the Libyan government, borrowed in slices as big as $1.175 billion from the US central bank.

At the time the bank was not majority owned by the Tripoli government; other shareholders included the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The Bahrain-headquartered firm appears frequently in the Fed's records of its emergency short-term lending facilities between March 2009 and March 2010.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110401/bs_afp/usbankbankinglibyabahrain

[Tx4obama]

1. Happened in 2008 - under BUSH

Federal Reserve Lent To Gaddafi-Owned Bank, European Firms After Fighting Disclosure For 3 Years

At a time when credit markets shunned even the most worthy borrowers, foreign banks, including one partly-owned by Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, fled to the Federal Reserve and borrowed at rock-bottom interest rates, Fed documents released Thursday show.

During the height of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, as investors and firms hoarded cash, the Fed reduced its rates to kickstart lending in the broader economy. Arab Banking Corp., a $28 billion lender now 59 percent-owned by Libya's central bank, borrowed at least $3.2 billion during this time. The Fed charged it an interest rate ranging from 2.25 percent to as low as 1.25 percent on those borrowings, regular Fed data show.

SNIP

Records show the Libyan bank borrowed its funds beginning on September 18, 2008 and lasting through at least November 13 of the same year. The daily high point came on three separate occasions in October and November, when the lender tapped the discount window for $600 million. Beginning October 8, those loans were available at a 1.75 percent interest rate. A few weeks later, the rate dropped to 1.25 percent.

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/federal-reserve-gaddafi-owned-bank-disclosures_n_843400.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. ooops!

Somebody really fucked up when they did that excel spreadsheet.

[Taitertots]

3. The Fed lent to a bank that would one day be purchased by Qaddafi

This doesn't matter at all.