Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Thursday that it is expanding the scope of its one-trillion-dollar program aimed at boosting consumer credit.

    The program is being expanded to include four additional categories of asset-backed securities, the central bank said in a statement.

    They are securities backed by loans or leases relating to business equipment, leases of vehicle fleet, loans extended by mortgage servicers to cover payments missed by homeowners, and "floorplan loans" that help sellers of big-ticket items including trucks, boats and heavy equipment.

    The new categories will not be part of the program's initial rollout this week, but will be included starting in April, according to the statement.

    Created by the Fed and the Treasury Department late last year, the program aims to spur lending for auto, education, credit card and other loans for consumers and small businesses.

    Investors can get loans from the Fed and use the money to buy newly issued securities backed by a range of consumer and business debt.

    On Feb. 10 this year, the Fed announced that it was prepared to undertake a significant expansion of the program.

    Called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), the program is designed "to catalyze" credit markets that have been frozen in the financial crisis.

    "Today's announcement marks the first step in that expansion," the Fed said. "A number of other asset classes are under review." 

U.S. Fed leaves key interest rate unchanged at record low

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday held a key interest rate unchanged at a record low of between zero to 0.25 percent while announcing new steps to help lift the country out of the longest recession in a quarter century.

To provide greater support to mortgage lending and housing markets, the central bank announced it will buy up to an additional 750 billion dollars of agency mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to 1.25 trillion dollars this year.

U.S. Fed delays stricter capitalization rules for banks

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve announced Tuesday it is delaying by two years new limits on certain securities and other core capital held at major banks, a fresh effort to help banks cope with the financial crisis.

"This action is being taken in light of continued stress in financial markets and the efforts of BHCs (bank holding companies)to increase their overall capital levels," the Fed explained in a statement.

U.S. Treasury, Fed launch new consumer credit program

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on Tuesday launched a much-awaited program aimed at boosting the availability of credit for consumers and small businesses.

The program, dubbed the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), has the potential to generate up to 1 trillion U.S. dollars of lending for businesses and households, the Treasury and the Fed said in a joint statement.

Obama unveils mortgage relief plan

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday revealed a mortgage relief plan in an effort to prevent more Americans from losing their homes.

The plan is expected to help between 7 million and 9 million American families to avoid foreclosure, said the president in an address in Mesa, Arizona.

U.S. stocks fluctuate in light of housing plan

NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks fluctuated around November lows on Wednesday morning as the market digest the details of Obama administration's housing relief plan.

Stocks saw a big sell-off Tuesday with major indexes tumbling to 3-month low. Dow dropped back to 7,552 level and S&P 500 plunged below 800 points for the first time since November.