WASHINGTON (AP) -- Turmoil in financial markets has eased somewhat, but the situation is still "far from normal," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

The central bank has taken a number of unconventional steps -- especially since March, when the credit crisis intensified -- to help squeezed banks and big investment firms overcome problems and try to get credit flowing more freely again.

Those efforts appear to be paying off and "have contributed to some improvement in financing markets," the Fed chief said in prepared remarks delivered via satellite to a financial markets conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in Sea Island, Ga.

Bernanke noted some improvements in the markets for certain mortgage-backed securities, such as those backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as some fixed-rate mortgages and corporate debt.

Moreover, the Fed's extraordinary decision in March to let investment firms go to the Fed for emergency loans "seems to have bolstered confidence," Bernanke said.

"These are welcome signs, of course, but at this stage conditions in financial markets are still far from normal," he said.

For instance, there are still strains involving a widely used interest rate called the London interbank