"...Lehman had adequate financeable collateral. Many people, to this day, do not know that on September 12, the Friday night preceding Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, Lehman financed itself and did not need access to the Fed’s discount window. In addition, on that Monday, September 15, the day of the filing, Lehman Brothers Inc., the U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary, borrowed about $50 billion from the New York Fed by pledging acceptable collateral. The Fed was paid back 100 cents on the dollar. What Lehman needed on that Sunday night was a liquidity bridge. We had the capital."
"In retrospect, there is no question we made some poorly timed business decisions and investments, but we addressed those mistakes and got ourselves back to a strong equity position with a Tier I capital ratio of 11%. We also had financeable collateral and solidly performing businesses. There is nothing about this profile that would indicate a bankrupt company. I thank the Commission for its time and look forward to addressing any questions." |