The U.S. Federal Reserve says commercial banks borrowed in record amounts from its emergency lending program over the past week, while investment banks drew loans at a slower pace, the Associated Press reported.
The Fed's report Thursday shows commercial banks averaged a record US$111.9 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That surpassed the old record - a daily average of US$105.8 billion - from the prior week.
For the week ending Wednesday, investment firms drew US$87.4 billion. That was down from US$111.3 billion in the previous week. This category was recently broadened to include any loans that were made to the U.S. and London-based broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.