Borrowing Funds to Purchase Bonds

There are several sources available to borrow funds. When securities are purchased with borrowed funds then the most common practice is to use the securities as collateral for the loan. In such a case, the transaction is referred to as a collateralized loan. The most common collateralized borrowing arrangements used by the investors are:

Margin Buying

In this kind of arrangement, the broker provides funds to buy the securities and he gets the money form banks. The interest rate the banks charge to the broker for these transactions is known as the call money rate or broker loan rate. The broker charges the investor the call money rate plus service charge.

Repurchase Agreement

This is an agreement sale to a security with the commitment that the seller will buy back the same security from the purchaser at a pre-specified price and date. The price and date at which the seller purchases the security are known as the repurchase price and repurchase date respectively. The implied interest rate is also known as repo rate. When the term of the loan is one day, it is called an overnight repo, and when the loan period is more than one day, it is called a term repo.