Mnuchin held calls with bank CEOs to discuss market turmoil

Dec. 24, 2018 / 3:22 AM GMT

By John Melloy, CNBC

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held calls on Sunday with the heads of the six largest U.S. banks to shore up confidence in the U.S. financial system amid the recent market turmoil.

“The banks all confirmed ample liquidity is available for lending to consumer and business markets,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Mnuchin spoke with J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America‘s Brian Moynihan, Goldman Sachs‘ David Solomon, Morgan Stanley‘s James Gorman, Tim Sloan of Wells Fargo and Michael Corbat of Citigroup.

“We continue to see strong economic growth in the U.S. economy with robust activity from consumers and business,” Mnuchin said in the statement.

Wells Fargo declined to comment on the calls. The other five banks did not immediately return CNBC’s requests for comment.

Mnuchin is dealing with several issues facing investors and the financial system:

• A stock market sell-off that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week to its worst drop in 10 years. The S&P 500 is 17.8 percent from its record, almost a bear market.
• A president furious with the Federal Reserve chairman for raising interest rates amid the equity decline. So frustrated is President Donald Trump that he reportedly has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Mnuchin sought to quell the firestorm from those reports this weekend.
• A government shutdown that will apparently drag on through at least Thursday.