http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN2527372820080226 Major banks, including UBS AG (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research), are making it harder for clients to sell what was considered one of the safest alternatives to cash -- so-called variable-rate demand notes -- sources familiar with industry practices say. "I heard everybody's doing it," one of the sources said on Monday. Previously, investors who wanted to sell these floating- rate notes just had to contact the banks, which would either resell the debt or salt it away in their inventory. But now, because banks are afraid of taking on any more risk, they are taking advantage of the slower and more cumbersome procedures spelled out in the debt's legal papers, which oblige would-be sellers to go through the tender agents. As a result, this $400 billion market is starting to freeze up -- much like the market for auction-rate paper -- as the banks put their need to save cash ahead of the investors' desire for them to buy their debt to keep the market liquid.
If it's the end of the world... Why are C (7.1%) and USB (6.8%) bond prices holding up so well? You don't have to microanalyze the news... It's all priced into the bonds.
Why? Maybe because it is perceived that the banks will have an easier time making timely interest payments without the burden of making a market in garbage that they had underwritten?