General Electric tested the Federal Reserve’s latest effort to restore confidence and liquidity to the US credit markets, borrowing less than $5bn from the government on Monday through a new short-term loan facility.

The Fed unveiled the commercial-paper facility earlier this month amid mounting concern that even highly rated issuers such as GE and American Express would lose access to short-term loans they in turn need to fund their operations. Dozens of companies had registered with the Fed to access the programme, which made its debut on Monday.