Repo haircut
The discount taken off collateral value in a repo trade.
Definitions
When you borrow cash in a repo and post bonds as collateral, the lender doesn't give you a hundred cents on the dollar — they shave a few percent off to protect themselves if the bonds drop or you default. Treasuries get a tiny haircut, junk gets a fat one. Haircuts widened violently in 2008 and that, more than anything, killed Bear and Lehman.
Repo haircut In A Sentence
Origin & Usage
Money-market jargon; the 2008 crisis literature (Gorton, Bernanke) made the term mainstream.
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