Unit investment trusts

Founded in 1940, the Investment Company Institute (http // www.ici.org) is the national association of the U.S. investment company industry. Its membership includes 8,638 mutual funds, 498 closed-end funds, and seven sponsors of unit investment trusts. 

This is part of the general collateral (GC) market, and is more common in the United States than elsewhere. Consider the case of a cash-rich institution investing in GC as an alternative to deposits or commercial paper. The better the quality of collateral, the lower the yield the institution can expect, while the mechanics of settlement may also affect the repo rate. The most secure procedure is to take physical possession of the collateral. However, if the dealer needs one or more substitutions during the term of the trade, the settlement costs involved may make the trade unworkable for one or both parties. Therefore, the dealer may offer to hold the securities in his own custody against the investor s cash. This is known as a hold-in-custody (HIC) repo. The advantage of this trade is that since securities do not physically move, no settlement charges are incurred. However, this carries some risk for the investor because they only have the dealer s word that their cash is indeed fully collateralised in the event of default. Thus this type of trade is sometime referred to as a Trust Me repo it is also referred to as a due-bill repo or a letter repo. 

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