by Calculated Risk on 10/19/2007 12:06:00 AM

From the WSJ: Citi's SIVs: Staving Off a Fire Sale

Executives of Citigroup Inc. say the giant bank has secured funding through year end for the $80 billion in structured investment vehicles it manages after selling $20 billion in assets since the midsummer credit crunch.

The steps taken by the bank's alternative-asset management unit ... mean the Citigroup SIVs can avoid the kind of forced selling at distressed prices begun by some other European SIV managers ...
...
Mr. Havens of Citigroup said in an interview the Citi SIVs have in the past week or so been able to sell "many billions of dollars" of short-term debt known as commercial paper "to top-tier-name institutions."

And the following article on SIVs is excellent: How London Created a Snarl In Global Markets

The ... bankers hatched the idea of setting up a fund that would issue short-term commercial paper and medium-term notes to investors, then use the money to buy higher-yielding assets, typically longer-term ones. The bank would profit by collecting fees for operating the fund. The fund's assets would belong to its investors, so they would stay off the bank's balance sheet. SIVs had an advantage over conduits, a similar structure that was already gaining popularity: They didn't require banks to cover fully the fund's debts if the commercial-paper market dried up.