Tim Geithner says he would have supported a US Federal Reserve loan to help Barclays buy Lehman Brothers on the weekend in September 2008 that ended with the largest bankruptcy in US history.
In his memoir of the financial crisis, Stress Test, to be published today, Mr Geithner, the former New York Fed president and Treasury secretary, reveals divisions among officials trying to save Lehman.
His book raises the tantalising possibility of Fed support that might have persuaded UK regulators to let Barclays go ahead with buying Lehman, thus avoiding its bankruptcy and changing the course of the financial crisis, although Mr Geithner says that was unlikely.