MNI POLICY: NY Fed Market Head Stresses Speedy Aid in 1st Talk

--Fed May Hire Help Outside Traditional Players

By Evan Ryser

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The Fed is moving swiftly to put up credit facilities,

the head of the New York Fed's markets group said Friday, and corporate funding

will go "live in the coming weeks." 

     Pointing to dried up liquidity across markets in March, the New York Fed

will be putting up the two corporate credit facilities, a municipal liquidity

facility, and has already started a commercial paper facility, Daleep Singh

said, in his first public remarks since joining the central bank in February. 

     The corporate credit facilities will "go live in the coming weeks" which

seeks to provide broad support for market functioning and reduce the incidence

and severity of fire sales and indiscriminate liquidation, he said. 

     "Considering the speed and scale of damage caused by the virus outbreak, we

are making all efforts to implement these facilities at maximum speed," Singh

said. "At the same time, though, we are moving with maximum care, drawing upon

all of the lessons learned since 2008."

     --TRANSPARENCY

     Singh, addressing concerns from the U.S. Congress, said "transparency will

be key to sustaining public confidence in our efforts" as the central bank has

been "entrusted with a great responsibility to deploy large sums of public

resources."

     The central bank will provide information about outside vendors, including

how much they're paying for services, and will operate on short-term contracts

and open up the process to a wide variety of bidders, he said. 

     The extended range of liquidity "requires if we accelerate the vendor

selection process to minimize time to market, we operate under a short-term

contract and then open up the process to a competitive range of bidders, looking

beyond the largest and most established players and providing broad access to a

diverse range of smaller players," he said.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: evan.ryser@marketnews.com

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