Bear bailout vehicle turns first paper profit

Maiden Lane, a vehicle used to provide a loan to JP Morgan to facilitate its bailout of Bear Stearns, turned a paper profit the first time since it was set up, data published on Thursday evening showed.

In the three months to June, the fair value of the assets held as collateral for the loan increased to $627m more than the value of the loan, the Federal Reserve's weekly balance sheet, out Thursday, revealed. The collateral, the Fed said, now had a fair value of $29.4 billion against an