Total lending through the Federal Reserve Board's discount window continued to decline this week, falling 13%, to $155.2 billion Wednesday.
Traditional borrowing by commercial banks fell 20% from a week earlier, to $66.5 billion. Lending to unhealthy banks in the form of "secondary credit" reached $139 million — a dramatic increase from a week earlier, when it was $10 million.
The Fed said it had extended $39.1 billion by Wednesday through the discount window to support American International Group Inc. The central bank has also created a limited liability corporation through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that has lent $19.2 billion to AIG; the amount was largely unchanged from a week earlier.
Lending against asset-backed commercial paper held by money-market mutual funds fell 23%., to $16.1 billion.
