Quote from demoship:
The discount window is 2.5% now.
I can (in my personal account mind you) generate ~ 2.9% risk free, on assets that "mature" in around a month (so same duration as treasury bills). Only risk is counterparty risk, which you're going to be taking no matter what investment you take.
Now, if you're a bank, and you need some cash, would you rather borrow @ 2.5% through the discount window, or say, 2.7% from another bank?
Oh, and before anyone tries to call bullshit on being able to get 2.9% risk free, it's easy.
Do a conversion for options expiring in april on any highly traded, low volatility, non-dividend (or at least no dividend between now and expiration day in april) stock. The only risks are pin risk (which isn't that big of an issue, you do multiple stocks at multiple strikes, and if worse comes to worse, you unwind the position on expiration day and pay the 1.9 cent / share commission again), your broker going under, or the occ going under. If the occ goes under, I'd be willing to bet anything there will be a bailout to ensure their obligations are met.