US stocks leapt on Tuesday after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that stress tests of big US banks from this week are unlikely to see any of them nationalised outright. His remarks signalled that the government intends to support major banks as going concerns in the private markets, taking equity stakes as necessary in what would amount to partial nationalisations. Bernanke said the plan was a Treasury initiative, but offered a broad endorsement that which seemed designed to help prepare the ground for a future government request for more bail-out funds. Read his full remarks to Congress here.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 4:37 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with ben bernanke. Edit this entry.