IOU, Uncle Sam: Loans Start Today Measures
2008年10月27日

The Federal Reserve starts making loans to American corporations Monday, a historic step meant to calm nerves in the short-term debt markets and to ensure companies have access to cash even if markets freeze again.

Dozens of companies signed up last week to sell short-term IOUs called commercial paper to the Fed, which will purchase three-month debt that has high credit ratings. Most of the firms that plan to participate have large financial businesses that rely heavily on short-term funding for their day-to-day cash needs. They include banks such as Morgan Stanley and a U.S. unit of Swiss bank UBS AG, as well as the finance arm of General Electric Co., Ford Motor Credit and GMAC LLC.

The interest charged by the Fed on the loans will in most cases range from 2% to 4%, rates that many banks and financial companies will be willing to pay in the absence of investor demand. That would be lower than recent overnight borrowing rates of more than 5% for many issuers during the worst days of the credit crunch.

These Fed-backed rates, however, would be considered high in normal times and also exceed current yields on similar debt issued by strong industrial corporations.

By offering to buy up to $1.3 trillion worth of commercial paper from companies if no one else wants to buy it, the Fed is trying to encourage investors to invest their cash in debt that matures in more than a few days.

The Fed’s commercial paper facility, first announced Oct. 7, was part of a series of unprecedented government measures that started in mid-September to help alleviate severe strains in the credit markets and bring down interest rates. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. spooked investors all over the world, who sold off the shares and debt of many financial companies for fear they might collapse.

The Fed and Treasury stepped in repeatedly to support the markets, by extending a huge loan to insurer American International Group, backstopping asset-backed commercial paper, pumping cash into the credit markets, establishing programs to take stakes in financial institutions and guarantee the debt of U.S. banks, and cutting the federal-funds target rate.

Over the past six weeks, turmoil in the financial sector caused many money-market mutual funds to limit most of their investments to overnight commercial paper. That made it difficult or impossible for many companies to roll over their debt, and also caused the overall commercial paper market to shrink. Since the start of September, the volume of U.S. commercial paper outstanding has declined by about $350 billion, or 20%, to $1.45 trillion.

With an investment vehicle set up by the Fed now effectively acting as a commercial-paper buyer of last resort, companies will have more breathing room to manage their finances.

The Fed’s program should ‘relieve a fair amount of the pressure on the commercial paper market,’ says Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of fixed-income research at Barclays Capital.

He notes, however, that some banks may rely temporarily on the facility while they prepare to issue longer-term debt that stands to benefit from government guarantees until 2012. The commercial-paper facility is currently scheduled to remain in place until April 2009.

Issuers that want to sell asset-backed commercial paper to the Fed facility, which is being overseen by Allianz SE’s Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, will have to pay three percentage points above an interest-rate benchmark called the three-month overnight indexed swap rate, which was 0.89% on Friday.

Companies selling unsecured commercial paper will have to pay an effective rate of two percentage points above this OIS benchmark. Issuers must sign up at least two days before using the facility, and can only sell commercial paper to it through primary dealers of the New York Fed.

美国政府开始向企业放贷 历史性一步

美国联邦储备委员会(Federal Reserve)周一开始向美国企业提供贷款,政府希望通过这一历史性举措安抚短期债券市场紧张局面、确保即使在信贷市场再次冻结的情况下企业也能获得现金融资。

数十家美国公司上周签署协议,向Fed发售属于短期债性质的商业票据。而Fed将购买高信贷评级的3个月期债券。参加该计划的这些公司大多拥有大规模金融业务,日常现金需求严重依赖短期融资。申请的机构中包括摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)、瑞士银行(UBS AG)一家美国子公司,以及通用电气(General Electric Co.)信贷子公司、福特旗下Ford Motor Credit及通用汽车金融服务公司(GMAC LLC.)。

Fed对这类贷款大多收取2%-4%的利息;在投资者需求不足的情况下,许多银行和金融公司都乐意支付这样的利率水平。这个利率低于近期信贷危机最严重时期许多银行机构被迫支付的5%的隔夜拆款利率。

不过,Fed对贷款收取的这个利率水平比正常时期高,也高于强劲行业公司发行的类似债券的收益率水平。

如果没有其他投资者愿意购买,Fed最多将从上述公司买进1.3万亿美元的商业票据,希望以此激励投资者将现金投向短期债券市场。

Fed 的商业票据计划最早是10月7日宣布的,它是政府从9月份开始的一系列前所未有的救助计划的一部分。政府希望通过这些计划缓解信贷市场的严重紧张局势,带动市场利率回落。雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers Holdings)的倒闭让全世界投资者惊恐万状,他们纷纷抛售金融公司的股票和债券,担心它们也会步雷曼兄弟的后尘。

Fed和财政部其间多次介入提振市场。它们向美国国际集团(American International Group)提供了大笔贷款,为资产抵押商业票据提供担保、向信贷市场注入资金,创见计划参股金融机构并为美国银行业债务提供担保,还下调了联邦基金目标利率。

过去六周来,金融领域的动荡导致货币市场多家共同基金将它们的大部分投资限于隔夜商业票据。这导致许多企业难以甚至根本没可能对债券进行展期,还引发商业票据市场出现整体萎缩。自9月初以来,美国商业票据余额减少了大约3,500亿美元,至1.45万亿美元,降幅高达20%。

Fed建立的这项计划实际成为没有其他选择的情况下商业票据的最后买家。通过这一计划,企业在安排它们的融资时将获得更大喘息空间。

巴克莱资本(Barclays Capital)固定收益研究部门负责人Ajay Rajadhyaksha说,Fed的这项计划应能“对商业票据市场缓解一定的压力”。

不过他指出,一些银行可能会暂时依靠这项计划,同时准备发行中长期债券,这些债券在2012年之前可以享受政府担保。而商业票据融资计划目前确定的期限是到2009年4月。

这项计划由安联保险(Allianz SE)旗下太平洋投资管理公司(Pacific Investment Management Co.)负责。希望向该计划出售资产担保型商业票据的公司将须支付较3个月期隔夜掉期利率(OIS)高3个百分点的利率。上周五OIS为0.89%。

发售无担保商业票据的公司将须支付较3个月期OIS高两个百分点的利率。发售债券的公司必须在使用该计划前两天签署协议,且必须通过纽约联邦储备银行的一级交易商出售这些票据。