Mnuchin in crisis talks with top US bank chiefs

Source: Xinhua | 2018-12-25

US President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary called top US bankers amid an ongoing rout on Wall Street and made plans to convene a group of officials known as the “Plunge Protection Team.”

US stocks have fallen sharply in recent weeks on concerns over slowing economic growth.

Wall Street was heading for another rout amid turmoil in Washington, with the Dow losing as much as 2 percent after its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.

By late last night Shanghai time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 22,042.77, down about 400 points or 1.8 percent after earlier sliding 2 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.3 percent to 2,384.14, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.5 percent to 6,238.29.

“Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation’s six largest banks,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Twitter shortly before financial markets were due to open in Asia.

‘Ample liquidity’

The Treasury said in a statement that Mnuchin talked with the chief executives of Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.

“The CEOs confirmed that they have ample liquidity available for lending,” the Treasury said.

Mnuchin “also confirmed that they have not experienced any clearance or margin issues and that the markets continue to function properly,” the Treasury said.

Mnuchin’s calls to the bankers came amid a partial government shutdown that began on Saturday following an impasse in Congress over Trump’s demand for more funds for a wall on the border with Mexico. Financing for about a quarter of federal government programs expired at midnight on Friday and the shutdown could continue to January 3.

The Treasury said Mnuchin is to convene a call yesterday with the president’s Working Group on Financial Markets, which includes Washington’s main stewards of the US financial system and is sometimes referred to as the “Plunge Protection Team.”