It remains a pressing question for funding markets why, even with QE4 in place and now daily overnight and short-term repo operations in place, banks continue to rush to lock in year-end liquidity, where some fear a similar explosion in overnight repo rates as was observed on Dec 31, 2018 when General Collateral soared amid a widespread liquidity shortage. Indeed, even with the Fed’s commitment to continue providing liquidity to the financial system around year-end, the market is still showing concerns, indicating that for all its telegraphed firepower, the Fed has failed to calm markets and ease counterparty risks which as the BIS observed yesterday, now involve hedge funds.As a reminder, since the Sept 16 repo blow up, the Fed has injected $208 billion via "temporary" rolling overnight and term repos, and $114 billion via permanent T-Bill purchases.
What is even more troubling is that in just 6 days, the next major potential crack in the repo market is due: on Dec. 16 there is a tax payment day looming; that's when cash is drained from the banking system, similar to the Sept 16 tax payment which many alleged sparked the original repo crisis, and as Bloomberg's Marcus Ashworth notes, "with the repo rate over the year end more than double the Fed rate of 1.5%-1.75%, this is not proving to be a temporary problem."