Agency Debentures
"Agency debentures" is another way to say "government bonds."
"Agency" just refers to an agency of the government, such as the Treasury Department. "Debentures" is the lowest rung of bond on the debt stack of priority payback should the B word be introduced (rhymes with shmankruptcy). A debenture typically has no specific asset backing it. Rather, it's a handshake on paper that just says, "I promise to pay." So investors evaluate how much that promise is worth and/or how much it hurts the promisor, should they ever break it.
To understand how agency debentures are different from typical bonds, we'll break things down a bit more.
Bonds are a type of loan. Rather than negotiating with a bank, an organization will issue a set of bonds with set terms, like a maturity date and an interest rate, and make them available for people to purchase. Unlike stock, bond buyers don't own part of the company. Instead, they are owed money as a creditor, the same way a bank would if it issued a loan.
When a company issues a bond, that bond is backed by company assets. If the company files for bankruptcy or otherwise defaults on the bond, creditors have a course of action. In the worst case scenario, company assets are sold off and bond holders are repaid as best they can from that money.
Things are different for government bonds. Government bonds aren't backed by assets the same way a corporate bond is. If the U.S. government defaults, creditors can't just sell off the White House and Yellowstone National Park and call it even. Instead, government bonds are backed by the "full faith and credit" of the government, which is another way of saying, "we super promise to pay you back, but if not, we own a bunch of tanks, sooooo..."
Agency bonds sit somewhere in between all of this government paper and priority stack. They aren't quite the full faith and credit safety of Uncle Sam's ability to tax us. They are backed by the agency issuing them inside of the protected tent of Uncle Sam.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is the Process of a Bank L...107 Views
finance a la shmoop. what is the process of a bank loaning money ? alright well
there are two key factors a bank focuses on to determine the likelihood and terms
in your getting dough from them. alright one can you afford to pay the loan back? [ man in office speaks to camera]
like what do you do for a living? how much do you make? is it likely you'll
still be employed after the next economic downturn? you know stuff like
that and then there's two. if you don't pay back the loan you promise to pay
back then which of your assets can they take from you, so that they get their
money into the interest you were supposed to pay back .okay example time [Man carries money in front of a for sale sign]
you're buying a house first one. you scrimped you save and now you think you
can afford this half-million dollar home in palo alto. and that's what half a
million bucks buys you here. well you have 50 grand in savings ready to put
down on the house, and you have a nice job as a personal trainer to the stars [man smiling in a gym]
of Silicon Valley, they look a little different from the stars of Hollywood. so
yeah you'll never be out of work. you make about 70 grand a year but it's all
as an individual contractor, so you have great periods of time where you make
bank and then months where you make a whole lot of nothing. well after taxes on
average your seventy K is about 50 K which is all you've got to your name. you [math equation]
thought you'd put 10% down, but didn't realize that you'd have to pay real
estate taxes in advance, and then other closing costs so you really needed
$60,000 but the bank wants your business
mainly because, well, their biggest [businessman talks to man in gym]
customers are your clients. prevailing interest rates on mortgages are 6% but
you're not exactly a Bill Gates credit risk, so your cost of interest will be
higher. they quote you an 8% mortgage rate if you put 20% down on the house.
but you don't have 20% to put down. you have way less, which means more risk to
the bank,and lending you the money meaning it's higher risk that they don't [equations shown]
get paid back, so they'll charge you more for renting the money from them. so the
price they charge you is 10% interest to rent the money because well you have to
pay for insurance, or PMI. that covers you if you don't pay them back. and yes that
sounds harsh and cruel, but well welcome to the real world. so you're
thinking that you have a loan of 460,000 dollars that extra 10 grand covers
closing costs and taxes and other things like maybe a little furniture a place to
sleep on. on 10 percent interest you'll pay 46 thousand dollars a year just in [equations]
interest. well essentially all of that interest is directly tax-deductible so
instead of your seventy thousand dollars being fifty thousand after taxes, as far
as the IRS is concerned ,you no longer make seventy thousand dollars you make
seventy thousand dollars minus forty six thousand dollars, or just twenty four
grand a year ,and your taxes on that are like that two grand maybe even a little
less .you almost qualify for food stamps. and that's good you might need them, [man chews on food stamps]
because two grand will just barely pay for the food you'll need to, you know
live. so the bank just barely passes you to qualify for this loan after checking
to be sure that you know you've never had a missed payment on a credit card, or
any other loan, or had any other issues like a DUI or some criminal thing that
would give any lender a cause to pause. so the above is all about your ability [checklist shown]
to pay that was number one. right number two what comes next is all about the
risk to the bank. you bought a home in a very active real estate market. the bank
presumes that they can always sell the home but the home is doubled in value in
the last three years, and the bank knows that this rate of appreciation is not
normal. so there's a lot of risk if the home drops in volume 30 40 maybe even 50
percent in the short run so there is a scenario where the home you just bought
for five hundred grand ends up selling for 300 grand less 20 [boxes and for sale sign]
grand in commissions and costs and that's only 280 G's. well the bank loaned
you four hundred sixty thousand dollars and in this scenario you'd of course
lose the fifty thousand dollars you put down at your down payment, but the bank
would then lose a hundred eighty thousand dollars as well. and you know
banks don't like to lose money. at least the ones that do don't stay in business
very long. yeah. so that's the process pay your loans. [ group smiles in front of Christmas tree]
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