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This is Money
Barclays has been forced to tap the Bank of England's emergency lending fund after a major error in the City's trading systems wreaked havoc on the money markets. The bank borrowed up to 1.6bn from the central bank's standing facility after it failed to settle its positions on the open market. It is the second time in as many weeks it has had to turn to the lender of last resort.
Barclays said: "Had there not been a technical breakdown, this situation would not have occurred. At the end of the day, there was excess liquidity in the money markets, where bank reserves were larger than bank borrowings. There are no liquidity issues in the UK markets. Barclays itself is flush with liquidity." However, traders expressed surprise at the excuse, saying that, if these technical problems were really the culprit, then it would have affected far more institutions.
Euroclear also said that none of its members had reported settlement problems to it - a strong indication that, although the system problems were a disruption, they were not directly to blame for the use of the Bank's emergency facility.
Barclays borrows 1.6bn from Bank of England
Barclays forced to arrange 1.6bn BoE emergency loan
Standard & Poor's, the credit rating agency, said its rating on Barclays was undisturbed by the bank's potential exposure to SIVs, which are funds that issue cheap short-term debt called commercial paper to invest in long-term higher-yielding assets such as mortgage-backed securities.
S&P said Barclays was exposed to US conduit funds valued at about $35bn, including one called Sheffield Receivables Corp with about $22bn of outstanding commercial paper. The ratings agency said the conduits were being refinanced, largely through the commercial paper market and that Barclays had capital to fund them if necessary.
Barclays dips into Bank's coffers after fresh glitch
The amount British banks have been forced to write off in bad debt has jumped by a fifth to almost 9bn in a stark sign that households are struggling to keep up their repayments. Lenders had to write off 2.3bn worth of bad debts in the second quarter - up from the 2.1bn in the previous quarter, according to figures published by the Bank of England.
9bn consumer debts written off by banks
Deutsche Bank has shut down its proprietary credit trading desk in London and up to seven employees have left the bank - including department head Gerry Jackson - as the credit crunch claimed yet more scalps yesterday.
Deutsche Bank axes jobs
Fears that Russia's banking system could be vulnerable to a sudden downturn have led to a surge in capital outflows over the past two weeks, triggering the sharpest fall in the country's reserves since the oil boom began.
The central bank has intervened aggressively in recent days to stave off a possible credit crunch, injecting a record $10.6bn into the banking system on Tuesday. In a move that has raised eyebrows, it is also selling dollars to support the ruble, spending $4bn on August 21 alone.
Russian jitters as investors take flight
Major private equity buyouts have ground to a halt because of a backlog of "a year's worth" of debt financing that banks must sell to other investors before they can start funding new deals, industry sources said.
Private equity held up by 'a year's worth of debt'
The head of the government-sponsored company set up to promote home ownership in the US said he had underestimated the scale of the downturn in the country's housing market.
Freddie Mac plunges as housing crisis rumbles on
US jobless piles rate pressure on Bernanke