Bernanke: Fed acted to assure firms of liquidity

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve officials said on Sunday the U.S. central bank was taking additional extraordinary measures to ensure the broad spectrum of financial firms have access to liquid funds as a credit crisis roils markets.

"The Federal Reserve in close consultation with the Treasury is working to promote liquid, well functioning financial markets, which are essential for economic growth. To that end we took two steps today," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a rare conference call with reporters.

"These steps will provide financial institutions with greater assurance of access to funds," he added.

Senior Fed officials said the unusual weekend announcement came at the culmination of a very challenging series of weeks in financial markets.

Problems at investment bank Bear Stearns posed a major set of challenges for the financial system as a whole, one senior official said.

The timing of the announcements should be thought of as driven by the situation at that troubled financial institution, the official said.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal)