Funds borrowed at 15-24% in Oct: Sebi report

Public banks refrained from buying CDs of private banks, CPs of companies.

It is official now. Some fund houses facing redemption pressures during the month of October and till early November were borrowing at rates of 11-24 per cent. In fact, one fund house borrowed at 39 per cent for a day and 46 per cent for another day, according the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) report that was put up on the official website on Monday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had opened a 14-day repo window of Rs 20,000 crore for banks at 11 per cent to lend to the mutual fund industry on October 15. But the lending was happening at higher rates. Also, public sector banks were not accepting certificate of deposits (CDs) of private banks and commercial papers (CPs) of companies.

It is only after the Association of Mutual Funds in Indian (Amfi) representatives met the Finance Minister and the Indian Banks’ Association in November that things started improving. The public sector banks started obliging the mutual fund industry by giving loans at 11 per cent. They started accepting CDs of private banks. Also, there was an agreement to purchase commercial papers, but rate were to be determined on a case-to-case basis.

The report has also pointed out that in October, debt schemes including liquid schemes saw a net outflow of Rs 48,478 crore. In October 2007, the net inflows were Rs 50,678 crore.

Based on the data of top five mutual funds, it has been observed that of the total assets in debt (excluding open ended debt schemes) and liquid schemes, 45 per cent are in CDs, 23 per cent in debentures, 17.4 per cent in pass through certificates (PTCs) and 9 per cent in commercial papers.

Sebi’s report also said that some of the reasons for the outflows were lack of credit from banks to the corporate sector. There was a shift of money from mutual funds to bank fixed deposits because of higher interest rates. Also, there were no buyers for assets, including CDs of private sector banks. Further, despite having credit lines, mutual funds were unable to borrow.