Bear Stearns nær konkurs – mer om kredittkrisen

Siste fra New York Times om kredittkrisen er at J P Morgen og Federal Reserve nå må gripe inn for å redde investeringsbanken Bear Stearns fra likviditetskrise. Dette kan bety slutten på Bear Stearns 85 år lange eksistens som uavhengig institusjon.

New York Times skriver:

With the support of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, JPMorgan said in a statement that it had “agreed to provide secured funding to Bear Stearns, as necessary, for an initial period of up to 28 days.”

For the next month, JPMorgan will work with Bear Stearns to reach a solution for its financing crisis. Options could include organizing permanent financing or, according to people briefed on the discussions, buying the bank for a discounted price.

“JPMorgan Chase is working closely with Bear Stearns on securing permanent financing or other alternatives for the company,” JPMorgan said in its statement.

The rescue plan represents a devastating if not ultimately final blow for Bear Stearns, a scrappy and until now resilient investment bank that carved out a niche for itself by mastering the intricacies of the United States mortgage market.

But after two of its hedge funds that specialized in the subprime mortgage market collapsed last summer, Bear’s expertise became its Achilles’ heel as the plummeting market for complex securities tied to subprime mortgages severely damaged its core business.

Dette er nok en påminnelse om at den internasjonale kredittkrisen kan komme til å vise seg å være langt dypere enn først antatt.