Bank Liquidity Was Never a Question Despite Mnuchin's Tweet

(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin left market observers puzzled on Sunday when he tried to tamp down a banking liquidity crisis no one had raised. Mnuchin tweeted late Sunday afternoon that he’d called the chief executive officers of the nation’s six largest banks and that those chiefs “confirmed they have ample liquidity available for lending to consumer, business markets, and all other market operations.” Those banks all have liquidity coverage ratios -- a measure of unencumbered high-quality assets that can easily be converted into cash -- that exceed 115 percent, more than the 100 percent required by Basel III rules.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brandon Kochkodin in New York at bkochkodin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sophie Caronello at scaronello@bloomberg.net;Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net

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