Morgan Stanley sold HK$1.5 billion $192 million of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FDIC-backed bonds yesterday, paying 20bp over the three-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate Hibor. The floating-rate note issue, which matures on June18, 2012, was arranged by Morgan Stanley itself and HSBC.
The bonds are issued under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program TLGP, are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and fully guaranteed by the United States government. Last October, the US's FDIC agreed to guarantee bond issues by financial companies to help them access funding and cope with billions of dollars of asset write-downs. More than 8,000 institutions with more than $13.6 trillion of assets fall...