NY Fed Sells American International Group, Inc. Bailout Assets To Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch, Leaving Barclays, Citigroup And Others-Reuters

Reuters reported that the New York Federal Reserve sold all its TRIAXX collateralized debt obligations from a portfolio of assets that was used in the government bailout of insurer American International Group, Inc. to Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch, following a competitive bid process with eight other Wall Street firms. Terms of the sale of the assets from the portfolio known as Maiden Lane III were not disclosed, though the New York Fed did say the assets were sold at a profit. Merrill, the broker-dealer unit of Bank of America, beat out Barclays PLC's Barclays Capital, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Morgan Stanley, Nomura Co., Ltd. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc's RBS Securities. The combined principal value of all the TRIAXX CDO securities in the Maiden Lane III portfolio was about $2.5 billion as of March 31. The fair value of the Maiden Lane III portfolio was $20.21 billion on May 2. As a part of the government bailout of insurer American International Group Inc in 2008, the New York Fed lent $24.3 billion to finance the purchase of securities for Maiden Lane III, while AIG took a $5 billion equity stake.