The Federal Reserve responded with several programs, including a facility to finance bank purchases of high-quality asset-backed commercial paper from money market mutual funds.

FORBES: The Crisis and the Policy Response

The template is its September 19th announcement that it would finance banks' purchases of asset-backed commercial paper from money-market funds.

ECONOMIST: The Federal Reserve

Recreating its backstops for money-market funds, commercial paper and asset-backed securities might require such stringent conditions that no one would participate.

ECONOMIST: What if there were another Lehman?

Turns out that the Primary Fund, like many other money market funds, made significant investments in asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP), which offered juicy yields, but did so because they were backed by things like mortgages, auto loans, credit card receivables and other risky assets that, despite their risk, came with investment-grade ratings.

FORBES: Magazine Article

For this reason, ad hoc responses will still be critical, such as last week's federal guarantees for money-market funds, Fed loans to banks to buy asset-backed commercial paper and, on Sunday, approval of the remaining two big independent investment banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, to become Fed-regulated bank holding-companies whose investment bank units can now borrow from the Fed on the same terms as other banks.

ECONOMIST: The financial crisis