Hours before the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its interest rate by 0.5 percent on 3 March, demand for overnight repo loans shot up to $108.6 billion against the Fed’s record offering of $1 billion.
On 4 March, the Fed offered another $100 billion and the demand for the loans reached $111 billion.
Banks were desperately seeking liquidity to lubricate the markets as the coronavirus panic continued to quell economic activity.