Wall Street firms prepare as debt limit talks go to the wire

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wall Street firms are sounding alarm bells and dusting off contingency plans as fears grow that Congress may fail to reach a deal to raise the country’s debt limit in time, executives said.

With federal government funding due to expire on Thursday and borrowing authority set to run out on October 18, Democrats who narrowly control both chambers of Congress are scrambling to prevent an unprecedented US credit default. Their latest efforts on Tuesday were blocked by Republicans.

A failure to raise the legal cap on how much money the government can borrow to fund its budget deficits and meet debt obligations, currently set at $28.4 trillion, could send shockwaves across global markets.

“If there were to be some kind of failure to pay Treasury securities, we honestly don’t know what would happen,” said Rob Toomey, managing director and associate general counsel for capital markets at the

Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

“Certainly, you can expect significant volatility were this to occur, and the market needs to be prepared.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon told Reuters on Tuesday that the bank had begun preparing for the possibility of a US default, a “potentially catastrophic” event, although he added he expected a last-minute deal.

Some analysts say, though, that the uncertainty is showing slightly in the spread between one-month Treasury bills and three-month Treasury bills, which are perceived to carry less risk of default. One-month bills currently yield 0.07% compared to 0.04% for three-month bills. At the beginning of the year, both yielded around 0.08%.

Previous debt limit crises have roiled global markets, despite being resolved. A now-notorious 2011 standoff over the ceiling led S&P Global Ratings to downgrade US sovereign debt for the first time, wiping $2.4 trillion off US stocks. Talks went to the wire again in 2017, although with less disruption.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs this month described the standoff as “the riskiest debt-limit deadline in a decade.”

Given how badly exposed Wall Street banks, dealers and investors would be to a default, they have to prepare for the possibility even if they expect the crisis to be resolved.

SIFMA is working on two scenarios. The more likely would see the Treasury buy time to pay back bondholders by announcing ahead of a payment that it would be rolling those maturing securities over for another day. That would allow the market to continue functioning even if there was broader volatility.

The other, much less likely scenario would see the Treasury allow bonds to mature, which would be more disruptive as the unpaid bonds would still need to be settled but would no longer exist in the US Federal Reserve’s systems, said SIFMA.