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A certificate of
deposit (CD) is a money market instrument issued by a depository
institution as evidence of a time deposit. Small denomination certificates
of deposit are issued to retail investors. In the United States, these
usually are covered by deposit insurance. This article focuses on
large-denomination certificates of deposit, which are issued to
institutional investors for denominations generally exceeding
USD 1.0MM.
A certificate of deposit has a fixed
term. At the end of the term,
the deposit is returned with interest. The vast majority of certificates
of deposit have terms of under a year, with three months being typical.
Certificates of deposit with terms of a year or more are called
term CDs. Terms of five years are not unheard
of.
Most certificates of deposit credit a fixed rate of
interest, but there are also
floating-rate certificates of deposit. A fee must be paid to withdraw
funds early. Because most certificates of deposit are negotiable,
investors usually sell an unwanted certificate of deposit rather than pay
a fee and withdraw the funds. To facilitate transferability, most
certificates of deposit are issued in
bearer
form, but some are
registered.
Certificates of deposit fall into three general
categories:
Domestic
CDs are issued within a country by a domestic bank or other
depository institution.
Foreign
CDs are issued within a country by a domestic branch of a foreign
depository institution. For example, a Yankee CD
is a CD issued in the United States by a foreign bank.
Euro
CDs are issued outside a country but are denominated in that
country's currency.
Domestic and foreign CDs are subject to the regulations of
the country in which they are issued. Euro CDs are not. For this reason,
Euro CDs have historically offered slightly higher
yields.
Yields for terms less than a year are quoted as
simple interest rates. An
actual/360 basis is used almost everywhere, but certificates of deposit
denominated in British pounds are usually quoted on an actual/365 basis.
Yields depend primarily on a certificate of deposit's term, the level of
interest rates for the currency it is denominated in, and the
credit quality of the issuer.
Depository institutions try to sell their certificates
of deposit directly to investors. If their funding needs exceed their
ability to directly market the certificates of deposit, they may also
sell them to dealers, who then resell them. Dealers provide a secondary
market in certificates of deposit. Brokers also arrange transactions. To
preserve anonymity, inter-dealer transactions are often brokered.
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bankers acceptance
An acceptance that has a bank as its drawee.
basis swap
A floating-for-floating interest rate or currency swap.
COFI
Cost of Funds Index.
commercial paper
Short-term promissory notes issued primarily by corporations.
credit risk Risk due to
uncertainty in a counterparty's ability to meet its obligations.
discount instrument
A money market instrument that pays no coupons, matures for its face value, and
is issued at a discount to its face value.
discount
yield A formula for calculating yield on a discount instrument.
Fed funds Deposits
held by US banks in accounts at their regional Federal Reserve banks.
interest
rate swap A swap under which both cash flow streams are in the same currency and are defined as cash flow streams that might be associated with some fixed income obligations.
fixed income
term structure Refers collectively to a spot curve, forward curve,
discount curve, yield curve or any other curve that describes the time value of
money.
floater
A fixed income instrument whose coupon fluctuates with some designated reference
rate.
interest rate spreads
Spreads between interest rates.
Libor
London Interbank Offered Rate.
medium-term
note A debt security issued through shelf-registration under
US law.
repurchase
agreement An agreement to sell and
subsequently repurchase a security.
Treasury bill US
Treasury security with with a maturity of a year or less at the time of issue.
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Ads by Contingency Analysis
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Fabozzi, Mann and Choudhry (2002)
is an introduction to the money markets that discusses
certificates of deposit.
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