Greenspan Denies Saying He Would Have Cut Key Rate

- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan denied he told Deutsche Bank AG executives at a dinner that he would have lowered the benchmark U.S. interest rate by now.

``I did not say that,'' Greenspan said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Greenspan was hired by Deutsche Bank earlier this month to advise the securities unit of Germany's biggest bank. The former Fed chief, who left the central bank in January 2006, said last week that he took the job in part because he had enjoyed working with the unit's chief economist, Peter Hooper, a former Fed official.

``There was speculation in the markets that Greenspan had said at a Deutsche Bank dinner yesterday that he would have cut the fed funds rate by now,'' said Stephen Gallo, a market analyst at Real-Time Analysis & News Ltd. in London.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues have refrained from cutting the benchmark target rate for overnight loans between banks to address the upheaval in credit markets. Instead, the Fed on Aug. 17 reduced the discount rate, the cost of direct loans to banks, while indicating readiness to take further action.

Under Greenspan, the Fed cut the main rate three times in 1998 after currency and debt crises in emerging markets led to the collapse of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management LP.

Since retiring, Greenspan, 81, has been speaking to companies and business groups and working on a book scheduled for release next month. He served as Fed chairman for 18 years.