National Australia Bank Ltd
(ASX:NAB) and Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd
(ASX:WBC) were among the global banks that borrowed billions of dollars in emergency funds from the US Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.
Documents released yesterday by the US Federal Reserve reveal a little more about the 21,000 emergency loans that the Fed provided to foreign banks, investment banks and various other institutions.
The Reserve Bank of Australia also borrowed a little over $53 billion from the US central bank over six months after the financial crisis, as there as a global shortage of keenly traded US dollars.
NAB tapped the Fed for more than $4.5 billion and a New York-based entity owned by Westpac borrowed around $1 billion from the Fed.
For the year ended 30 September 2010, NAB reported a net profit of $4.2 billion.
