Nothing Could Have Saved Lehman, Bernanke Says

Federal Reserve Board Chairman said last week that the Fed had no powers to save Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
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Nothing Could Have Saved Lehman, Bernanke Says
Lehman Brothers former Chairman and CEO Richard Fuld testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission about the roots and causes of the 2008 financial and banking meltdown in U.S. and worldwide markets on Capitol Hill September 1, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
9/5/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/103767371.jpg" alt="Lehman Brothers former Chairman and CEO Richard Fuld testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission about the roots and causes of the 2008 financial and banking meltdown in U.S. and worldwide markets on Capitol Hill September 1, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" title="Lehman Brothers former Chairman and CEO Richard Fuld testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission about the roots and causes of the 2008 financial and banking meltdown in U.S. and worldwide markets on Capitol Hill September 1, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1815112"/></a>
Lehman Brothers former Chairman and CEO Richard Fuld testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission about the roots and causes of the 2008 financial and banking meltdown in U.S. and worldwide markets on Capitol Hill September 1, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Federal Reserve Board Chairman said last week that the Fed had no powers to save Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the giant investment bank that fatefully went under in September 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.

In a testimony in front of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), Bernanke said that the Fed could not lend massive amounts of money to Lehman—as it later did to other banks—because Lehman at that time did not have enough collateral to obtain the loan, as the firm was already too stricken to be saved, according to his remarks in front of the FCIC.

“The view was that failure was essentially certain in either case,” Bernanke said. Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, Sep. 13, 2008, after British bank Barclays Plc agreed to purchase the firm’s U.S. broker-dealer business. Earlier last week, former Lehman CEO Dick Fuld argued that the U.S. regulators had the power to save the firm, but did not pull the trigger.