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The Fed Takes On Corporate Credit Risk: An Analysis of the Efficacy of the SMCCF

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Abstract
This paper evaluates the efficacy of the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, a program designed to stabilize the U.S. corporate bond market during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program announcements on March 23 and April 9, 2020, significantly reduced investment-grade credit spreads across the maturity spectrum—irrespective of the program’s maturity-eligibility criterion—and ultimately restored the normal upward-sloping term structure of credit spreads. The Federal Reserve’s actual purchases reduced credit spreads of eligible bonds 3 basis points more than those of ineligible bonds, a sizable effect given the modest volume of purchases. A calibrated variant of the preferred habit model shows that a “dash for cash”—a selloff of shorter-term lowest-risk investment-grade bonds—combined with a spike in the arbitrageurs’ risk aversion, can account for the inversion of the investment-grade credit curve during the height of turmoil in the market. Consistent with the empirical findings, the Fed’s announcements, by reducing risk aversion and alleviating market segmentation, helped restore the upward-sloping credit curve in the investment-grade segment of the market.

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  • Simon Gilchrist & Bin Wei & Vivian Z. Yue & Egon Zakrajšek, 2024. "The Fed Takes On Corporate Credit Risk: An Analysis of the Efficacy of the SMCCF," Working Papers 24-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:97967
    DOI: 10.29412/res.wp.2024.02
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; SMCCF; credit spreads; credit market support facilities; event study; purchase effects; preferred habitat;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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