Commercial Paper: A Primer
February 12, 2025
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Retail investors across the world do not have a high level of knowledge when it comes to money markets. This is because of the fact that money markets have been largely invisible to retail investors.
For a significant amount of time, money markets have only been used by large corporations, banks, and other entities to either borrow or lend money for the short term. The only way retail investors can invest in the money market is via using the services of mutual funds i.e. of a big corporation.
In this article, we will have a closer look at what a money market is.
A money market is a market where investors who have excess cash interact with other investors who are short of cash. The specialty of this market is that transactions happen for a very short period of time.
A money market has been defined as a market where the maturity of the securities being traded is less than one year. It is important to note that money markets are not necessarily restricted to a certain geography. Cross-border money markets have also been in existence for a long period of time.
It is important to note that money markets exist in almost every country in the world. The smooth functioning of a money market is crucial to a thriving economy. Adverse events in the money market can have ripple effects on the economy.
For instance, the famous credit freeze which followed the Lehman collapse in 2008 was a money market incident that impacted the entire global economy.
The money market plays a very important role in helping borrowers and lenders meet their needs. This is because it is impossible for the market participants to have their short-term cash flows completely synchronized.
The following types of securities can be classified as money market securities if they have a maturity of less than one year:
There are several types of participants in the money market. Some of the important ones have been listed below:
Money market funds can be classified based on the participants. Some examples of these different types of funds have been explained below:
It is uncommon for firms other than banks to borrow money from the overnight market. The LIBOR and LIBID interest rates are famous examples of overnight market interest rates which are known to a lot of investors.
Sovereign securities are both liquid and safe. Hence, they are quite popular in the money market.
There are many blue-chip corporations that routinely issue commercial paper in the market to borrow funds. Some of these securities can be considered to be at par with sovereign securities since the issuing companies have stellar credit ratings.
The bottom line is that money markets are considered to be an important pillar of any national economy and the global financial system in particular.
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