The scale of the US Federal Reserve's lending during the global financial crisis was revealed on Wednesday in a massive release of data demanded by the US Congress.The lending was part of the largest liquidity support operation in the history of global finance. From September 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, the Fed lent huge amounts to banks such as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UK-based Barclays and Swiss UBS, US industrial companies, central banks around the world and even non-US pension and insurance groups. The Financial Times estimated the Fed lent $US3.3 trillion.The Fed, heavily criticised over its bailout efforts, pointed out yesterday that it had "incurred no credit losses" on the lending.As it reported last year, the Reserve Bank of Australia borrowed as much as $US27 billion from the US Federal Reserve at one point in November 2008, aiming to support the US dollar borrowings of Australian banks (including foreign-owned banks). With the $US foreign exchange market normalising, the facility was last used in April 2009; the last of the repos matured in July 2009.