Money Market
Money Market Financial Market Money Market / Financial market is the market that facilitates the transfer of funds between investors/ lenders and borrowers/ users. The financial market may be defined as ‘a transmission mechanism between investors (or lenders) and the borrowers (or users) through which transfer of funds is facilitated’. It consists of individual investors, financial institutions, and other intermediaries who are linked by a formal trading rule and communication network for trading the various financial assets and credit instruments. It deals in financial instruments (like bills of exchange, shares, debentures, bonds, etc). Classification of financial markets Money market / Markets for short term funds: Financial instruments traded in them mature in less than a year Capital markets / Markets for long term funds: Financial instruments traded in them mature in more than a year. Instruments of Money market Or Sub Markets of Money market Cash Management Bills (CMBs) — These are short term bills issued by central government to meet its immediate cash needs. The bills are issued by the RBI on behalf of the government. Hence the CMBs are short-term money market instruments that help the government to meet its temporary cash flow mismatches. Following are the features of CMBs. CMBs have a maturity of less than 91 days. The CMBs have the generic character of Treasury Bills as the CMBs are issued at a discount and redeemed at face value at maturity. For example, if the face value of a CMB is Rs 100, we can get the bill at Rs 97 and at the end of the maturity date, say 60 after days, we can get Rs 100. Here, there is no interest payment as the maturity period is so small. But the return for buying CMB is obtained in the form of a discount. The tenure or maturity, notified amount (how much total CMBs to be issued) and date of issue of the CMBs depends upon the temporary cash requirement of the Government. CMBs are eligible as SLR securities. Investment in CMBs is also recognized as an eligible investment in Government securities by banks for SLR purpose under Section 24 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. CMBs are issued first on May 12, 2010. The purpose of the mechanism is to enable the government to get short term money. Ways and Means Advances (WMA). Under WMA, the RBI gives temporary loan facilities to the centre and state governments as a banker to government for upto 90 days. Call money market (CMM) — The market where overnight (one day) loans can be availed by banks to meet liquidity. Banks who seeks to avail liquidity approaches the call market as borrowers and the ones who have excess liquidity participate there as lenders. The CMM is functional from Monday to Friday. Banks can access CMM to meet their reserve requirements (CRR and SLR) or to cover a sudden shortfall in cash on any particular day. Effectively, the Call Money Market is the main market oriented mechanism to meet the liquidity requirements of banks. Notice money market The call money is usually availed for one day. If the bank needs funds for more days, it can avail money through notice market. Here, the loan is provided from two days to fourteen days. Participants Participants in the call money market are Scheduled commercial banks (excluding RRBs), co-operative banks (other than Land Development Banks) and Primary Dealers (PDs) [ i.e A primary dealer is a bank or other financial institution that has been approved to trade securities with a national government ] are permitted to participate in call/ notice money market both as borrowers and lenders. As per the new regulations, Payment Banks are also allowed to participate in CMM as both lenders and borrowers. Banks are the dominant participants in the CMM and hence it is often known as interbank call money market. Surplus banks will give loans to other banks. Deficit banks that need funds will purchase it. * Functioning of the Call Money Market Loans are availed through auction/negotiation. The auction is made on interest rate. Highest bidder (who is ready to give higher interest rate) can avail the loan. Average interest rate in the call market is called call rate. This call money rate is an important variable for the RBI to assess the liquidity situation in the economy. The CMM is known as the most sensitive segment of the financial system. Treasury Bill ( TB ) — When the government is going to the financial market to raise money, it can do it by issuing two types of debt instruments – treasury bills and government bonds. Treasury bills are issued when the government need money for a shorter period while bonds are issued when it need debt for more than say five years. Treasury bills; generally shortened as T-bills, have a maximum maturity of a 364 days. Hence, they are categorized as money market instruments (money market deals with funds with a maturity of less than one year). Treasury bills are presently issued in three maturities, namely, 91 days, 182 days, and 364 days. Treasury bills pay no interest Moreover, treasury bills are zero-coupon securities and pay no interest. Rather, they are issued at a discount (at a reduced amount) and redeemed (given back money) at the face value at maturity. For example, a 91 day Treasury bill of Rs.100/- (face value) may be issued at say Rs. 98.20, that is, at a discount of say, Rs.1.80 and would be redeemed at the face value of Rs.100/-. This means that you can get a hundred-rupee treasury bill at a lower price and can get Rupees hundred at maturity. The return to the investors is the difference between the maturity value or the face value (that is Rs.100) and the issue price. The Reserve Bank of India conducts auctions usually every Wednesday to issue T-bills. The rational is that since their maturity is lower, it is more convenient to avoid intra period interest payments. Treasury bills