MONEY MARKET ARBITRAGE AND COMMERCIAL BANKS' BASE RATE ADJUSTMENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
In: Bulletin of economic research, Volume 39, Issue 4, p. 273-296
ISSN: 1467-8586
ABSTRACTThis paper is concerned with the opportunities for arbitrage which have arisen in the UK when large companies are able to borrow from a commercial bank and on‐lend the money in the market at a higher rate. Such arbitrage is commonly called 'Round‐Tripping'. Round‐Tripping is investigated in a simple theoretical way, and then a simulation approach is used to estimate the amount of funds involved in Round‐Tripping in the 1970s. These estimates tend to support the view that Round‐Tripping was probably rather modest in amount in relation to the values of the main monetary aggregates.