Fed solicits bids from 8 banks for Maiden Lane III assets

NEW YORK (Reuters)—The New York Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it has asked eight dealers to bid on assets from its Maiden Lane III portfolio, which was created during the bailout of insurer American International Group.

Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Nomura have been invited to submit bids for the assets, "based on the strength of their expressions of interest" in the bonds, the Fed said in a statement on its website.

BlackRock Solutions, the investment manager for the Maiden Lane portfolio, will conduct a bid process for the bonds, with all bids due on April 26, though there is no fixed timetable for the sales, the Fed said.

The Fed will decide whether to sell the assets based on the strength of the best bid, it said.

Maiden Lane III grew out of the purchase of $29.3 billion in collateralized debt obligations from certain counterparties to an AIG unit.

The Fed completed the sale of all the remaining securities from its Maiden Lane II portfolio in February, which had $20.5 billion worth of risky mortgage bonds owned by several AIG insurance subsidiaries.

The New York Fed held three auctions to sell the assets from Maiden Lane II. Credit Suisse Group A.G. bought roughly $13 billion worth of the Maiden II bonds, while Goldman Sachs purchased about $6.2 billion.