The exterior of the world headquarters for Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated is seen in New York, May 19, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

　WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Federal Reserve said Sunday it has approved a request by two U.S. major investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies.

    The U.S. central bank said in a statement it is "to provide increased liquidity support to these firms" for the last remaining two major investments to change their status in order to manage "their funding within a bank holding company structure."

    The Federal Reserve Bank of New York will extend credit to the U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley against all types of collateral that may be pledged at the Federal Reserve's primary credit facility for depository institutions or at the existing Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF).

    The Federal Reserve has also made these collateral arrangements available to the broker-dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch, said the statement.

    In addition, the central bank also authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the London-based broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch against collateral that would be eligible to be pledged at the PDCF.

Banker leaves Goldman Sachs to aid Paulson

    WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s most senior financial-institutions banker, Ken Wilson, is temporarily leaving the firm to advise Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on how to resolve the country's banking crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

    In joining Paulson, a close friend and longtime colleague, Wilson will try to address issues from a more macro perspective, the report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.  Full story

Morgan Stanley: Global bearish market nearing climax

    MUMBAI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Global financial services major Morgan Stanley expects the bearish trend in global market nearing its climax and forecasts a strong possibility of bulls entry, if the continuous rise in commodity prices slows down.

    "In sum, we think the global bear market is nearing a climactic point and a crack in the commodity complex will be a powerful signal for a reversal of the trends that dominated in the first half of the year," Morgan Stanley said in a quarterly newsletter to its mutual fund unit holders in India, according to a report of Press Trust of India Tuesday.  Full story

Barclays to buy Lehman Brothers core business for $1.75 bln

    BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Barclays Plc on Wednesday announced that it had agreed to a 1.75-billion dollar deal to buy bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's North American investment banking and capital markets businesses.

    The deal, which saves around 10,000 jobs on Wall Street, came two days after Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection after it was unable to find financing or fresh capital to shore up its balance sheet. Full story

Bank of America acquires Merrill for $44 billion

    NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Merrill Lynch & Co., the third largest U.S. investment bank, agreed late Sunday to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for roughly 44 billion U.S. dollars.

    According to the deal, Bank of America will pay 29 dollars per share for the 94-year-old Merrill Lynch, which is 70 percent premium above Merrill's Friday close at 17.05 dollars per share. However, the offer is only two-thirds of Merrill's value of one year ago, and half its all-time peak value of early 2007. Full story