As government officials fight to prevent an economic depression by setting up emergency lending programs to keep credit flowing to taxpayers and small businesses, a prominent private equity firm is pushing to ensure that a broader spectrum of investments are included. The presentation, which was drafted by Marc J. Rowan, a co-founder of Apollo, on March 29, and shared widely within the investor community, argues that a Fed lending program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, should become “a broad program” that would allow a wider array of assets to participate. Doing so, he argued, could be essential to keeping the economy afloat. TALF, which was deployed during the 2008 financial crisis to help stabilize markets and keep loans flowing to businesses and households, was revived by the Fed on March 23 as part of a package of programs. While it is not yet up and running, the program will offer cheap loans in exchange for bundles of debt, called asset-backed securities.

Source: New York Times April 04, 2020 20:37 UTC