The United States treasury secretary has on Monday, called the chief executive officers (CEOs) of six biggest banks of the US and organized plans to summon a “plunge protection team”, amid the US government partial shutdown.
According to news reports, in recent weeks, the US shares have fallen down sharply over the concerns on slowing economic growth including the S&P 500 index on a track for its huge percentage decline since the great depression in December.
In a tweet, Donald Trump’s treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote: “Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation’s six largest banks.”
As the electronic trading resumed to still kick-off the holiday-shortened week, the US equity index futures went down on late Sunday. The benchmark S&P 500’s e-mini futures contracts were dropped about a quarter of percentage.
In an official statement, the treasury said he held talks with the CEOs of Wells Frago, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citi and Bank of America.
The treasury stated: “The CEOs confirmed that they have ample liquidity available for lending,” adding that Mnuchin “also confirmed that they have not experienced any clearance or margin issues and that the markets continue to function properly”.
Mnuchin’s call for a meeting with the CEOs of the banks came after the US government went partial shutdown on Saturday, following a deadlock in Congress over Trump’s demand of funds for the construction of border wall between the US-Mexico.
On Friday’s midnight, the financing of about quarter of federal government agencies expired and it is expected that the shutdown would continue to 3rd January.