Wall Street seeks to soothe, while preparing for trouble
Wall Street is preparing for the government to bounce its first check.
The government is partly shut down, but a bigger concern for financial executives is a potential default on public debt should Congress fail to raise the nation’s borrowing limits. Financial companies are making some early preparations just in case.
The pivotal date is in less than two weeks. The Obama administration has said that on Oct. 17 it will no longer be able to finance government obligations without raising the $16.7 trillion cap on government borrowing. A Treasury Department report released Thursday said the debt limit impasse could cause credit markets to freeze, the dollar to plunge and interest rates to rise. A default, the report added, could potentially result “in a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse.” A default would make it tough for the Treasury to make good on coming interest payments and other obligations, including paying scores of government employees and financing critical safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Wall Street remains confident that a deal to avert a default will materialize, according to interviews with senior executives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of company policies against speaking to the media. The relatively upbeat sentiment grew Thursday, stoked by reports that Speaker John A. Boehner had indicated to colleagues that he was determined to prevent a federal default.
And while Wall Street is sanguine, big banks like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are still working out contingency plans that involve redoubling efforts to keep clients calm and are selling government bonds — a sign that confidence in Washington has waned.
To guard against possible mayhem from a debt ceiling crisis, some of the nation’s largest banks are deploying plans that were developed in 2011 — when the government first looked as if it were on the verge of surpassing its debt ceiling limits.
One senior bank executive said his bank’s plan includes stocking retail branches with at least 20 percent more cash. That way, any customers who want to stockpile cash reserves in the event of a default can readily withdraw their money.
The executive also said that his bank was adopting safeguards to protect customers whose income flows from Social Security or other government programs from incurring any fees. The executive said that the bank intended to waive all fees and possibly advance customers money interest-free if their government checks were delayed.