Liquidity Creation without a Lender of Last Resort: Clearinghouse Loan Certificates in the Banking Panic of 1907.

Existing research on liquidity provision during National Banking Era (1863-1913) financial crises examines aggregate issuance of clearinghouse loan certificates by the New York Clearinghouse. We employ previously unexploited disaggregate data on clearinghouse loan certificate issues in New York City to document how the dominant national banks provided liquidity during the Panic of 1907. The large New York City national banks acted as private liquidity providers by requesting (and the New York Clearinghouse issuing) a volume of clearinghouse loan certificates far beyond their own immediate liquidity needs, in accord with their role as central reserve city banks in the national banking system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]