Tag: Eurodollar

The new FIMA Repo Facility helps patch up a weakness in the Fed’s global dollar safety net. Since the GFC, the Fed has assumed the role of lender of last resort to the off-shore dollar banking system through it’s FX Swap Facility. Foreign central banks (“CBs”) could borrow from the Facility and use the proceeds to backstop the dollar needs of banks within their country. This helps prevent dollar panics abroad, which would affect the Fed’s ability to control domestic dollar interest rates. The Facility covers virtually all major dollar users, except China. The dollar needs of Chinese banks are backstopped by the Chinese government’s large Treasury holdings. This set-up works, until the Treasury selling is so acute that the market malfunctions and everyone has trouble monetizing their Treasuries. In this post we review the role of the Fed’s FX Swap Facility and show how the new FIMA Repo Facility is largely a China Repo Facility designed to both strengthen rate control and the Treasury market.