The disclosure of the banks that borrowed from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis contained some interesting nuggets, but nothing earth-shattering. On the day that Lehman Brothers failed, for example, emergency-lending spiked to $48.5 billion, mainly via the Primary Dealer Credit Facility.

Around that time, the big banks were not shy about accepting emergency loans to stay alive. The day before Washington Mutual failed, it took out a $2 billion overnight loan, the documents show. On the day it failed in September 2008, it took out another $2 billion loan. All told, it took $10 billion in loans.

Wachovia and Morgan Stanley also took out short-term loans of $6 billion and $1.25 billion, respectively, in the fall of 2008. Many foreign banks also took advantage of the facility. Barclays, for example, took a $1 billion loan. Even smaller banks took advantage of the facility.

This information was made public after the Supreme Court declined to intervene in a case brought by Bloomberg and Fox News. The data is not all that surprising. Still, some think that banks' use of the credit facility will be "chilled," as banks fear on-going disclosure might taint their reputations.

The Fed now must disclose information on commercial banks that draw emergency loans from the discount window, but on a two-year lagged basis.

For more:
- here's the article

Related Articles:
Fed Must Release Bank Loan Data as High Court Rejects Appeal
Fed to release bank crisis data
Fed's discount window