The Federal Reserve Board said the assets it absorbed from Bear Stearns Cos. in March have lost more than $3.2 billion of their value.
The assets, originally worth $29 billion, were worth $25.8 billion as of Dec. 31, the Fed said Thursday. The central bank's intervention helped sell Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Also Thursday, the Fed said borrowing from the discount window rose 3.7% in the past week, to $154.8 billion. Lending to commercial banks jumped 8.6%, to $68.3 billion. Investment bank borrowings dropped 3.3%, to $32.2 billion.
Lending to American International Group Inc. totaled $38.3 billion.
Fed loans against asset-backed commercial paper held by money market mutual funds increased 8%, to nearly $16 billion.
Also, the amount of commercial paper held by the Fed fell 29.2%, to $248.1 billion, as more than $100 billion matured.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said it purchased $16.8 billion of mortgage-backed securities from the government-sponsored enterprises Jan. 22-28 — nearly $7.2 billion from Fannie Mae, $5.3 billion from Freddie Mac, and $4.3 billion from the Government National Mortgage Association.
Total assets held by the Fed fell 5.6%, to $1.9 trillion.
Bank reserves stationed at the Fed dropped 8.4%, to $740.4 billion.
