US banks hunting for collateral to back $20 billion Argentina bailout, WSJ reports

(Reuters) -A group of U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, is hesitant to lend $20 billion to Argentina without guarantees or collateral, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the department was working with banks and investment funds to create a $20 billion facility to invest in the South American country's sovereign debt. Bankers are waiting on guidance from the Treasury Department on what collateral Argentina would be able to provide for them or if Washington would plan to backstop the facility on its own, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The loan facility has not been finalized and might not come together if the banks' collateral question is not resolved, the report said. "Discussions on this facility remain ongoing, and we look forward to sharing more details once these talks are complete," a U.S. Treasury spokesperson told Reuters. Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Argentina's central bank said on Monday it signed a $20 billion exchange rate stabilization agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department, providing a total of $40 billion in U.S. support for Latin America's third-largest economy. The Treasury has also bought Argentine pesos in the open market. The U.S. facilities are also raising the possibility of a conflict between the IMF and the Treasury Department, with officials from the fund concerned that the Trump administration could pressure Argentina to put the U.S. liabilities ahead of the IMF's sizable loans, the WSJ report said. The IMF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Anusha Shah and Ruchika Khanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Subhranshu Sahu and Alan Barona)

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