The U.S. Treasury has agreed to lend $6 billion to GMAC LLC (GOM), the financing arm of General Motors Corp. (GM), in the latest government effort to keep the biggest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy.

GMAC immediately announced looser credit lending standards that could make approximately 60 million Americans eligible for its car loans and leases. The company also said it would expand further into the retail banking industry with plans to access even more funds from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

GMAC will “continue to pursue” other ways to boost liquidity, including applying for a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guaranty program and attracting retail deposits from consumers, Toni Simonetti a spokeswoman for GMAC told Bloomberg News.

“This is part of our strategy to position GMAC for long-term stability,” said Simonetti. “The reason we’re doing this is so

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strongFinancial News /strongbr /br /By Jason Corcoranbr /br /24 November 2008 br /br /emLetter from Moscow/embr /Gambling in casinos has been a popular pastime in Moscow since the fall of communism but a more recent fad is desperate speculation on the currency markets. A slide in the value of the rouble and a deposit run at banks that is gathering momentum has loaded the dice in favour of a punt on the dollar.br /br /The on-off love affair with the greenback dates back to 1998 when a rouble devaluation wiped out people’s savings. Those lucky enough to have withdrawn their money in time transferred funds into dollars. br /br /Popular as Russia’s leaders are, its citizens have learnt not to take any chances by keeping faith with the rouble. Russians are rushing to protect their wealth in global currencies, having seen the stock market plunge by 70%, inflation hovering at ...

Credit fears ease…  Chuck’s thoughts from the road… India cuts rates… China growth slows, but is still 9%… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day…And welcome to what should be another volatile week in the markets. Credit worries eased somewhat over the weekend, which helped push money back into the higher yielding currencies. Today Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will head to Congress to share his view on the economy. Should make for a pretty interesting day of trading. Hope you are sitting down and holding on, it looks like we are going to take another lap on the currency roller coaster!

The yen fell over the weekend as investors began moving funds back into the higher yielding currencies of Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. I won’t go into the whole explanation of the carry trade again, but suffice it to say that these moves haven’t proven to have much staying

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Russia’s finance ministry widened the emergency budget funding provision for Russia’s banking system on Sunday, suggesting that despite providing $130bn (€90bn) of additional liquidity to the country’s financial markets the banking system is still under pressure. The number of banks entitled to funding has been expanded from 3 to 28 - previously funding was restricted to the country’s three largest banks, Sberbank, VTB, and Gazprombank.The finance ministry also said it would provide an additional 600bn rubles ($24.21bn, €17bn) in the form of 3 month credit with a minimum rate of 8.75 per cent. The funding will be auctioned today.Russia's finance minister Alexei Kudrin met yesterday with representatives of more than 20 Russian banks, who had been arguing for such a measure to be taken since early last week. Bankers had been complaining that government credits provided to the three top ...