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US Treasury Secy asks Fed to return unused emergency lending funds
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IANS | 20 Nov, 2020
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has asked the Federal Reserve to
end five emergency Covid-19 lending facilities and return $455 billion
of unused funds.
"I am requesting that the Federal Reserve return
the unused funds to the Treasury," Mnuchin wrote in a letter to Fed
Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday.
"This will allow Congress to
re-appropriate $455 billion, consisting of $429 billion in excess
Treasury funds for the Federal Reserve facilities and $26 billion in
unused Treasury direct loan funds," he added.
In March, Congress
approved a $2.2 trillion Covid-19 relief bill known as the CARES Act,
which provided the Treasury around $500 billion to set up a variety of
emergency lending facilities through the Fed and guarantee loans,
reports Xinhua news agency.
Mnuchin said in the letter that these
emergency lending facilities, which are set to expire at the end of the
year, "have clearly achieved their objective".
"While portions
of economy are still severely impacted and in need of additional
support, financial conditions have responded and the use of these
facilities has been limited," he said.
Mnuchin noted that "in an
abundance of caution", he requested the central bank to extend for
another 90 days four of the emergency lending facilities -- the
Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility,
the Money Market Liquidity Facility and the Paycheck Protection Program
Liquidity Facility, while shutting down another five facilities.
However, the Fed wanted to continue all these emergency facilities.
"The
Federal Reserve would prefer that the full suite of emergency
facilities established during the coronavirus pandemic continue to serve
their important role as a backstop for our still-strained and
vulnerable economy," the Fed said in a statement.
Earlier this
week, Powell said that it's premature to shut down these emergency
facilities now as "the next few months may be very challenging" amid a
record surge in Covid-19 cases across the country.
As of Friday,
the US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of
Covid-19 cases and deaths at 11,710,084 and 252,484, according to the
Johns Hopkins University.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
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66.20
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64.50 |
UK Pound
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87.50
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84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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