WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced it was prepared to expand a program to support loans for consumers and small business up to $1 trillion, and widen the range of securities it would help. The following is a text of the Fed's statement:
The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced that it is prepared to undertake a substantial expansion of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). The expansion could increase the size of the TALF to as much as $1 trillion and could broaden the eligible collateral to encompass other types of newly issued AAA-rated asset-backed securities, such as commercial mortgage-backed securities, private-label residential mortgage-backed securities, and other asset-backed securities. An expansion of the TALF would be supported by the provision by the Treasury of additional funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The Board's objective in expanding the TALF would be to provide additional assistance to financial markets and institutions in meeting the credit needs of households and businesses and thus to support overall economic growth in the current period of severe financial strains. Decisions concerning the expansion of the TALF, which will be made in consultation with the Treasury Department, will draw on initial experience in administering the program and the Board's assessment of the likely effectiveness of possible enhancements to the program in advancing its broad economic goals.
Under the current specification of the TALF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will lend to eligible owners of certain AAA-rated asset-backed securities (ABS). The Federal Reserve had previously announced that it would accept AAA-rated asset-backed securities backed by newly and recently originated auto loans, credit card loans, student loans, and SBA-guaranteed small business loans as collateral for TALF loans. The date that the TALF will commence operations will be announced later this month.