U.S. banks borrow from Fed’s lending programme

U.S. banks are rushing to borrow from the lending programme of the Federal Reserve this week, as the banks have borrowed $11.9 billion, the largest loan since the 2008 financial crisis, according to Fed’s recent data.

The programme will provide loans for banks, credit unions, and other financial organizations for a year, in exchange for treasury bonds and other government-backed bonds.

Another $152.8 billion were loaned through the discount window, the traditional lending method for providing liquidity in the U.S. economy.

This is an increase of $4.58 billion from last week to break the record high of $111 billion recorded during the 2008 financial crisis.

The Fed did not specify the banks that were given a loan that exceeded around $164.8 billion, nor did it specify the number of banks that requested a loan.

The emergency loans from the Fed are a result of the SVB crash last week, the second major bank crash in the U.S. since the 2008 financial crisis.