by Calculated Risk on 8/18/2008 09:44:00 AM

From the Financial Times: US banks scramble to refinance maturing debt (hat tip AT)

Battered US financial groups will have to refinance billions of dollars in maturing debt over the coming months, a move likely to push banks’ funding costs higher ...

Mohamed El-Erian, co-chief executive of Pimco, the asset management group, said: “If banks keep borrowing at these levels, you will get a repricing of credit for the whole economy.”
...
Adding together 10 of the biggest bank borrowers, Dealogic said that maturing bonds total $27bn in August, $52bn in September, $23bn in October, $20bn in November and $86bn in December. The extent of the scramble for funds became clear last week when banks tapped central lending facilities ... US commercial banks borrowed a record daily average of $17.7bn from the Fed last week.

Higher borrowing costs for banks probably means higher lending costs for customers, negatively impacting the economy.