Money Market and its Instruments
Money Market: Money market means market where money or its equivalent can be traded.
Money is synonym of liquidity. Money market consists of financial institutions and dealers in
money or credit who wish to generate liquidity. It is better known as a place where large
institutions and government manage their short term cash needs. For generation of liquidity, short
term borrowing and lending is done by these financial institutions and dealers. Money Market is
part of financial market where instruments with high liquidity and very short term maturities are
traded. Due to highly liquid nature of securities and their short term maturities, money market is
treated as a safe place. Hence, money market is a market where short term obligations such as
treasury bills, commercial papers and banker’s acceptances are bought and sold.
Benefits and functions of Money Market: Money markets exist to facilitate efficient transfer of
short-term funds between holders and borrowers of cash assets. For the lender/investor, it
provides a good return on their funds. For the borrower, it enables rapid and relatively
inexpensive acquisition of cash to cover short-term liabilities. One of the primary functions of
money market is to provide focal point for RBI’s intervention for influencing liquidity and
general levels of interest rates in the economy. RBI being the main constituent in the money
market aims at ensuring that liquidity and short term interest rates are consistent with the
monetary policy objectives.
Money Market & Capital Market: Money Market is a place for short term lending and
borrowing, typically within a year. It deals in short term debt financing and investments. On the
other hand, Capital Market refers to stock market, which refers to trading in shares and bonds of
companies on recognized stock exchanges. Individual players cannot invest in money market as
the value of investments is large, on the other hand, in capital market, anybody can make
investments through a broker. Stock Market is associated with high risk and high return as against
money market which is more secure. Further, in case of money market, deals are transacted on
phone or through electronic systems as against capital market where trading is through
recognized stock exchanges.
Money Market Futures and Options: Active trading in money market futures and options
occurs on number of commodity exchanges. They function in the similar manner like any other
futures and options.
Money Market Instruments: Investment in money market is done through money market
instruments. Money market instrument meets short term requirements of the borrowers and
provides liquidity to the lenders. Common Money Market Instruments are as follows:
Treasury Bills (T-Bills): Treasury Bills, one of the safest money market instruments, are
short term borrowing instruments of the Central Government of the Country issued through
the Central Bank (RBI in India). They are zero risk instruments, and hence the returns are not
so attractive. It is available both in primary market as well as secondary market. It is a
promise to pay a said sum after a specified period. T-bills are short-term securities that
mature in one year or less from their issue date. They are issued with three-month, six-month
and one-year maturity periods. The Central Government issues T- Bills at a price less than
their face value (par value). They are issued with a promise to pay full face value on maturity.
So, when the T-Bills mature, the government pays the holder its face value. The difference
between the purchase price and the maturity value is the interest income earned by the
purchaser of the instrument. T-Bills are issued through a bidding process at auctions. The bid
can be prepared either competitively or non-competitively. In the second type of bidding,
return required is not specified and the one determined at the auction is received on maturity.
Whereas, in case of competitive bidding, the return required on maturity is specified in the
bid. In case the return specified is too high then the T-Bill might not be issued to the bidder.
At present, the Government of India issues three types of treasury bills through auctions,
namely, 91-day, 182-day and 364-day. There are no treasury bills issued by State
Governments. Treasury bills are available for a minimum amount of Rs.25K and in its
multiples. While 91-day T-bills are auctioned every week on Wednesdays, 182-day and 364-
day T-bills are auctioned every alternate week on Wednesdays. The Reserve Bank of India
issues a quarterly calendar of T-bill auctions which is available at the Banks’ website. It also
announces the exact dates of auction, the amount to be auctioned and payment dates by
issuing press releases prior to every auction. Payment by allottees at the auction is required to
be made by debit to their/ custodian’s current account. T-bills auctions are held on the
Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) and the members electronically submit their bids on the
system. NDS is an electronic platform for facilitating dealing in Government Securities and
Money Market Instruments. RBI issues these instruments to absorb liquidity from the market
by contracting the money supply. In banking terms, this is called Reverse Repurchase
(Reverse Repo). On the other hand, when RBI purchases back these instruments at a specified
date mentioned at the time of transaction, liquidity is infused in the market. This is called
Repo (Repurchase) transaction.
Repurchase Agreements: Repurchase transactions, called Repo or Reverse Repo are
transactions or short term loans in which two parties agree to sell and repurchase the same
security. They are usually used for overnight borrowing. Repo/Reverse Repo transactions can
be done only between the parties approved by RBI and in RBI approved securities viz. GOI
and State Govt Securities, T-Bills, PSU Bonds, FI Bonds, Corporate Bonds etc. Under
repurchase agreement the seller sells specified securities with an agreement to repurchase the
same at a mutually decided future date and price. Similarly, the buyer purchases the securities
with an agreement to resell the same to the seller on an agreed date at a predetermined price.
Such a transaction is called a Repo when viewed from the perspective of the seller of the
securities and Reverse Repo when viewed from the perspective of the buyer of the securities.
Thus, whether a given agreement is termed as a Repo or Reverse Repo depends on which
party initiated the transaction. The lender or buyer in a Repo is entitled to receive
compensation for use of funds provided to the counterparty. Effectively the seller of the
security borrows money for a period of time (Repo period) at a particular rate of interest
mutually agreed with the buyer of the security who has lent the funds to the seller. The rate of
interest agreed upon is called the Repo rate. The Repo rate is negotiated by the counterparties
independently of the coupon rate or rates of the underlying securities and is influenced by
overall money market conditions.
Commercial Papers: Commercial paper is a low-cost alternative to bank loans. It is a short
term unsecured promissory note issued by corporates and financial institutions at a
discounted value on face value. They are usually issued with fixed maturity between one to
270 days and for financing of accounts receivables, inventories and meeting short term
liabilities. Say, for example, a company has receivables of Rs 1 lacs with credit period 6
months. It will not be able to liquidate its receivables before 6 months. The company is in
need of funds. It can issue commercial papers in form of unsecured promissory notes at
discount of 10% on face value of Rs 1 lacs to be matured after 6 months. The company has
strong credit rating and finds buyers easily. The company is able to liquidate its receivables
immediately and the buyer is able to earn interest of Rs 10K over a period of 6 months. They
yield higher returns as compared to T-Bills as they are less secure in comparison to these
bills; however chances of default are almost negligible but are not zero risk instruments.
Commercial paper being an instrument not backed by any collateral, only firms with high
quality credit ratings will find buyers easily without offering any substantial discounts. They
are issued by corporates to impart flexibility in raising working capital resources at market
determined rates. Commercial Papers are actively traded in the secondary market since they
are issued in the form of promissory notes and are freely transferable in demat form.
Certificate of Deposit: It is a short term borrowing more like a bank term deposit account. It
is a promissory note issued by a bank in form of a certificate entitling the bearer to receive
interest. The certificate bears the maturity date, the fixed rate of interest and the value. It can
be issued in any denomination. They are stamped and transferred by endorsement. Its term
generally ranges from three months to five years and restricts the holders to withdraw funds
on demand. However, on payment of certain penalty the money can be withdrawn on demand
also. The returns on certificate of deposits are higher than T-Bills because it assumes higher
level of risk. While buying Certificate of Deposit, return method should be seen. Returns can
be based on Annual Percentage Yield (APY) or Annual Percentage Rate (APR). In APY,
interest earned is based on compounded interest calculation. However, in APR method,
simple interest calculation is done to generate the return. Accordingly, if the interest is paid
annually, equal return is generated by both APY and APR methods. However, if interest is
paid more than once in a year, it is beneficial to opt APY over APR.
Banker’s Acceptance: It is a short term credit investment created by a non financial firm and
guaranteed by a bank to make payment. It is simply a bill of exchange drawn by a person and
accepted by a bank. It is a buyer’s promise to pay to the seller a certain specified amount at
certain date. The same is guaranteed by the banker of the buyer in exchange for a claim on
the goods as collateral. The person drawing the bill must have a good credit rating otherwise
the Banker’s Acceptance will not be tradable. The most common term for these instruments
is 90 days. However, they can very from 30 days to180 days. For corporations, it acts as a
negotiable time draft for financing imports, exports and other transactions in goods and is
highly useful when the credit worthiness of the foreign trade party is unknown. The seller
need not hold it until maturity and can sell off the same in secondary market at discount from
the face value to liquidate its receivables.
An individual player cannot invest in majority of the Money Market Instruments, hence for
retail market, money market instruments are repackaged into Money Market Funds. A
money market fund is an investment fund that invests in low risk and low return bucket of
securities viz money market instruments. It is like a mutual fund, except the fact mutual funds
cater to capital market and money market funds cater to money market. Money Market funds can
be categorized as taxable funds or non taxable funds.
Investment in Money Market
Investment in Money Market Funds
Parking money in Money Market Account
Having understood, two modes of investment in money market viz Direct Investment in Money
Market Instruments & Investment in Money Market Funds, lets move forward to understand
functioning of money market account.
Money Market Account: It can be opened at any bank in the similar fashion as a savings
account. However, it is less liquid as compared to regular savings account. It is a low risk account
where the money parked by the investor is used by the bank for investing in money market
instruments and interest is earned by the account holder for allowing bank to make such
investment. Interest is usually compounded daily and paid monthly. There are two types of
money market accounts:
• Money Market Transactional Account: By opening such type of account, the account
holder can enter into transactions also besides investments, although the numbers of
transactions are limited.
• Money Market Investor Account: By opening such type of account, the account
holder can only do the investments with no transactions.
Money Market Index: To decide how much and where to invest in money market an investor
will refer to the Money Market Index. It provides information about the prevailing market rates.
There are various methods of identifying Money Market Index like:
• Smart Money Market Index- It is a composite index based on intra day price pattern
of the money market instruments.
• Salomon Smith Barney’s World Money Market Index- Money market instruments are
evaluated in various world currencies and a weighted average is calculated. This
helps in determining the index.
• Banker’s Acceptance Rate- As discussed above, Banker’s Acceptance is a money
market instrument. The prevailing market rate of this instrument i.e. the rate at which
the banker’s acceptance is traded in secondary market, is also used as a money
market index.
• LIBOR/MIBOR- London Inter Bank Offered Rate/ Mumbai Inter Bank Offered Rate
also serves as good money market index. This is the interest rate at which banks
borrow funds from other banks.
Money Market: Money market means market where money or its equivalent can be traded.
Money is synonym of liquidity. Money market consists of financial institutions and dealers in
money or credit who wish to generate liquidity. It is better known as a place where large
institutions and government manage their short term cash needs. For generation of liquidity, short
term borrowing and lending is done by these financial institutions and dealers. Money Market is
part of financial market where instruments with high liquidity and very short term maturities are
traded. Due to highly liquid nature of securities and their short term maturities, money market is
treated as a safe place. Hence, money market is a market where short term obligations such as
treasury bills, commercial papers and banker’s acceptances are bought and sold.
Benefits and functions of Money Market: Money markets exist to facilitate efficient transfer of
short-term funds between holders and borrowers of cash assets. For the lender/investor, it
provides a good return on their funds. For the borrower, it enables rapid and relatively
inexpensive acquisition of cash to cover short-term liabilities. One of the primary functions of
money market is to provide focal point for RBI’s intervention for influencing liquidity and
general levels of interest rates in the economy. RBI being the main constituent in the money
market aims at ensuring that liquidity and short term interest rates are consistent with the
monetary policy objectives.
Money Market & Capital Market: Money Market is a place for short term lending and
borrowing, typically within a year. It deals in short term debt financing and investments. On the
other hand, Capital Market refers to stock market, which refers to trading in shares and bonds of
companies on recognized stock exchanges. Individual players cannot invest in money market as
the value of investments is large, on the other hand, in capital market, anybody can make
investments through a broker. Stock Market is associated with high risk and high return as against
money market which is more secure. Further, in case of money market, deals are transacted on
phone or through electronic systems as against capital market where trading is through
recognized stock exchanges.
Money Market Futures and Options: Active trading in money market futures and options
occurs on number of commodity exchanges. They function in the similar manner like any other
futures and options.
Money Market Instruments: Investment in money market is done through money market
instruments. Money market instrument meets short term requirements of the borrowers and
provides liquidity to the lenders. Common Money Market Instruments are as follows:
Treasury Bills (T-Bills): Treasury Bills, one of the safest money market instruments, are
short term borrowing instruments of the Central Government of the Country issued through
the Central Bank (RBI in India). They are zero risk instruments, and hence the returns are not
so attractive. It is available both in primary market as well as secondary market. It is a
promise to pay a said sum after a specified period. T-bills are short-term securities that
mature in one year or less from their issue date. They are issued with three-month, six-month
and one-year maturity periods. The Central Government issues T- Bills at a price less than
their face value (par value). They are issued with a promise to pay full face value on maturity.
So, when the T-Bills mature, the government pays the holder its face value. The difference
between the purchase price and the maturity value is the interest income earned by the
purchaser of the instrument. T-Bills are issued through a bidding process at auctions. The bid
can be prepared either competitively or non-competitively. In the second type of bidding,
return required is not specified and the one determined at the auction is received on maturity.
Whereas, in case of competitive bidding, the return required on maturity is specified in the
bid. In case the return specified is too high then the T-Bill might not be issued to the bidder.
At present, the Government of India issues three types of treasury bills through auctions,
namely, 91-day, 182-day and 364-day. There are no treasury bills issued by State
Governments. Treasury bills are available for a minimum amount of Rs.25K and in its
multiples. While 91-day T-bills are auctioned every week on Wednesdays, 182-day and 364-
day T-bills are auctioned every alternate week on Wednesdays. The Reserve Bank of India
issues a quarterly calendar of T-bill auctions which is available at the Banks’ website. It also
announces the exact dates of auction, the amount to be auctioned and payment dates by
issuing press releases prior to every auction. Payment by allottees at the auction is required to
be made by debit to their/ custodian’s current account. T-bills auctions are held on the
Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) and the members electronically submit their bids on the
system. NDS is an electronic platform for facilitating dealing in Government Securities and
Money Market Instruments. RBI issues these instruments to absorb liquidity from the market
by contracting the money supply. In banking terms, this is called Reverse Repurchase
(Reverse Repo). On the other hand, when RBI purchases back these instruments at a specified
date mentioned at the time of transaction, liquidity is infused in the market. This is called
Repo (Repurchase) transaction.
Repurchase Agreements: Repurchase transactions, called Repo or Reverse Repo are
transactions or short term loans in which two parties agree to sell and repurchase the same
security. They are usually used for overnight borrowing. Repo/Reverse Repo transactions can
be done only between the parties approved by RBI and in RBI approved securities viz. GOI
and State Govt Securities, T-Bills, PSU Bonds, FI Bonds, Corporate Bonds etc. Under
repurchase agreement the seller sells specified securities with an agreement to repurchase the
same at a mutually decided future date and price. Similarly, the buyer purchases the securities
with an agreement to resell the same to the seller on an agreed date at a predetermined price.
Such a transaction is called a Repo when viewed from the perspective of the seller of the
securities and Reverse Repo when viewed from the perspective of the buyer of the securities.
Thus, whether a given agreement is termed as a Repo or Reverse Repo depends on which
party initiated the transaction. The lender or buyer in a Repo is entitled to receive
compensation for use of funds provided to the counterparty. Effectively the seller of the
security borrows money for a period of time (Repo period) at a particular rate of interest
mutually agreed with the buyer of the security who has lent the funds to the seller. The rate of
interest agreed upon is called the Repo rate. The Repo rate is negotiated by the counterparties
independently of the coupon rate or rates of the underlying securities and is influenced by
overall money market conditions.
Commercial Papers: Commercial paper is a low-cost alternative to bank loans. It is a short
term unsecured promissory note issued by corporates and financial institutions at a
discounted value on face value. They are usually issued with fixed maturity between one to
270 days and for financing of accounts receivables, inventories and meeting short term
liabilities. Say, for example, a company has receivables of Rs 1 lacs with credit period 6
months. It will not be able to liquidate its receivables before 6 months. The company is in
need of funds. It can issue commercial papers in form of unsecured promissory notes at
discount of 10% on face value of Rs 1 lacs to be matured after 6 months. The company has
strong credit rating and finds buyers easily. The company is able to liquidate its receivables
immediately and the buyer is able to earn interest of Rs 10K over a period of 6 months. They
yield higher returns as compared to T-Bills as they are less secure in comparison to these
bills; however chances of default are almost negligible but are not zero risk instruments.
Commercial paper being an instrument not backed by any collateral, only firms with high
quality credit ratings will find buyers easily without offering any substantial discounts. They
are issued by corporates to impart flexibility in raising working capital resources at market
determined rates. Commercial Papers are actively traded in the secondary market since they
are issued in the form of promissory notes and are freely transferable in demat form.
Certificate of Deposit: It is a short term borrowing more like a bank term deposit account. It
is a promissory note issued by a bank in form of a certificate entitling the bearer to receive
interest. The certificate bears the maturity date, the fixed rate of interest and the value. It can
be issued in any denomination. They are stamped and transferred by endorsement. Its term
generally ranges from three months to five years and restricts the holders to withdraw funds
on demand. However, on payment of certain penalty the money can be withdrawn on demand
also. The returns on certificate of deposits are higher than T-Bills because it assumes higher
level of risk. While buying Certificate of Deposit, return method should be seen. Returns can
be based on Annual Percentage Yield (APY) or Annual Percentage Rate (APR). In APY,
interest earned is based on compounded interest calculation. However, in APR method,
simple interest calculation is done to generate the return. Accordingly, if the interest is paid
annually, equal return is generated by both APY and APR methods. However, if interest is
paid more than once in a year, it is beneficial to opt APY over APR.
Banker’s Acceptance: It is a short term credit investment created by a non financial firm and
guaranteed by a bank to make payment. It is simply a bill of exchange drawn by a person and
accepted by a bank. It is a buyer’s promise to pay to the seller a certain specified amount at
certain date. The same is guaranteed by the banker of the buyer in exchange for a claim on
the goods as collateral. The person drawing the bill must have a good credit rating otherwise
the Banker’s Acceptance will not be tradable. The most common term for these instruments
is 90 days. However, they can very from 30 days to180 days. For corporations, it acts as a
negotiable time draft for financing imports, exports and other transactions in goods and is
highly useful when the credit worthiness of the foreign trade party is unknown. The seller
need not hold it until maturity and can sell off the same in secondary market at discount from
the face value to liquidate its receivables.
An individual player cannot invest in majority of the Money Market Instruments, hence for
retail market, money market instruments are repackaged into Money Market Funds. A
money market fund is an investment fund that invests in low risk and low return bucket of
securities viz money market instruments. It is like a mutual fund, except the fact mutual funds
cater to capital market and money market funds cater to money market. Money Market funds can
be categorized as taxable funds or non taxable funds.
Investment in Money Market
Investment in Money Market Funds
Parking money in Money Market Account
Having understood, two modes of investment in money market viz Direct Investment in Money
Market Instruments & Investment in Money Market Funds, lets move forward to understand
functioning of money market account.
Money Market Account: It can be opened at any bank in the similar fashion as a savings
account. However, it is less liquid as compared to regular savings account. It is a low risk account
where the money parked by the investor is used by the bank for investing in money market
instruments and interest is earned by the account holder for allowing bank to make such
investment. Interest is usually compounded daily and paid monthly. There are two types of
money market accounts:
• Money Market Transactional Account: By opening such type of account, the account
holder can enter into transactions also besides investments, although the numbers of
transactions are limited.
• Money Market Investor Account: By opening such type of account, the account
holder can only do the investments with no transactions.
Money Market Index: To decide how much and where to invest in money market an investor
will refer to the Money Market Index. It provides information about the prevailing market rates.
There are various methods of identifying Money Market Index like:
• Smart Money Market Index- It is a composite index based on intra day price pattern
of the money market instruments.
• Salomon Smith Barney’s World Money Market Index- Money market instruments are
evaluated in various world currencies and a weighted average is calculated. This
helps in determining the index.
• Banker’s Acceptance Rate- As discussed above, Banker’s Acceptance is a money
market instrument. The prevailing market rate of this instrument i.e. the rate at which
the banker’s acceptance is traded in secondary market, is also used as a money
market index.
• LIBOR/MIBOR- London Inter Bank Offered Rate/ Mumbai Inter Bank Offered Rate
also serves as good money market index. This is the interest rate at which banks
borrow funds from other banks.
