Ares
11th May 2010, 07:38 AM
As part of the reactivation of its FX swaps with the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England also reactivated its dollar repo operation. As announced, "these operations will be at fixed interest rates with counterparties able to borrow any amount against eligible collateral. The first tender will be held on Tuesday 11 May. The Bank will keep the frequency and maturity of its US dollar operations under review, in light of market conditions." And in light of the assumed scarcity of dollars in Euroland it was somewhat surprising that today's dollar repo reopening after a 5 month hiatus (the last such transaction occurred on January 27) saw exactly zero bids. We speculate that since the dollar repo was attempted at 10 am GMT, that the swap line is now active, although we have not yet seen anything in the form a term sheet or a press release from the Federal Reserve. But who are we to presume that the Fed would be accountable to anyone, let alone us, and disclose something as irrelevant as information to the general public. Yet the take home is that England, at least so far, is not in need to dollar denominated funding. Which means, as we have long speculated, that "lack of USD liquidity" ground zero is most likely France, and Germany is probably in second place.
The chart below demonstrates total usage of various maturity dollar repos by the BOE
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/zero-bids-first-bank-england-dollar-repo-reopening
The chart below demonstrates total usage of various maturity dollar repos by the BOE
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/zero-bids-first-bank-england-dollar-repo-reopening