Making Sense

For the week ended 29 March 2023, Federal Reserve released the report on Factors affecting reserve balances. This report has gained particular significance post the collapse of SVB Bank. The report offers insights into the extent of liquidity stress in the system by providing data on facility usage by depository institutions. There is USD 11 bn reduction reduction in loan facility driven by a fall of USD 22 bn through the primary credit discount window and USD 11 bn rise from the Bank Term Funding program, a facility announced in the aftermath of banking crisis to allow institutions to borrow upto a period of 1 year on collateral which will be valued at par.  To just give a sense, on the rates for the facility usage ( as on 31 Mar 2023) Primary Credit 5% Secondary Credit 5.50% Seasonal Credit 4.80%  Bank Term Funding program 4.85% While the borrowing from the discount window / BTFP and other credit extensions is elevated, it has shown signs of stabilization as has other a...

After the tumultuous Asian Session yesterday, risk sentiment stabilized overnight as markets took comfort  in the  spate of liquidity measures announced by CBs media reports of  U.S. Treasury Department staff studying if federal regulators have enough emergency authority to insure deposits above the current $250,000 cap on accounts without the consent of Congress  and most recently Tsy Secretary Janet Yellen comments " US aggregate deposit outflows from Regional Banks have stabilised. Tsy, Fed, FDIC actiions reduced risk of further bank failures that would have imposed losses on Deposit insurance fund. Similar actions to protect Depositors could be warranted if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs that pose risk of contagion" Sharp moves were seen across Rates. After the sharp dip in rates on write off of AT1 bonds by Credit Suisse, USD bonds pulled back.  For Domestic markets, RBI injected liquidity through the LAF window to the tune of 79K crore on 20 Mar ...

US Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC in a joint statement announced decisive steps to protect depositor's money. 1. Depositors will have access to all their money starting Monday, March 13. 2. FDIC will complete the resolution of SVB Bank and any losses associated with the resolution will NOT be borne by the tax payer. However, Shareholders and Unsecured Debt holders will not be protected. 3. A similar resolution was announced for Signature Bank (assets of $ 110 bn) which closed on Sunday. 4. A separate additional funding facility was made available - " Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP)" - to eligible depository institutions to help banks to meet the funding needs of all their depositors.  The facility will offer loans of upto 1Y pledging US Treasuries, Agency Debt, MBS and other qualifying assets. These assets will be valued at par. 5. Treasury made available $ 25 bn from the Exchange Stabilization fund as a backstop to BTFP.  The risk sentiment recovered with S&P fu...