Backstopping money market mutual funds: The Fed also re-launched the crisis-era Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF). This facility lent to banks against collateral they purchased from prime money market funds, which invest in Treasury securities and corporate short-term IOUs known as commercial paper. At the onset of COVID-19, investors, questioning the value of the private securities these funds held, withdrew from prime money market funds en masse. To meet these outflows, funds attempted to sell their securities, but market disruptions made it difficult to find buyers for even high-quality and shorter-maturity securities. These attempts to sell the securities only drove prices lower (in a "fire sale") and closed off markets that businesses rely on to raise funds. In response, the Fed set up the MMLF to "assist money market funds in meeting demands for redemptions by households and other investors, enhancing overall market functioning and credit provision to the broader economy." The Fed invoked Section 13(3) and obtained permission to administer the program from Treasury, which provided $10 billion from its Exchange Stabilization Fund to cover potential losses. Given limited usage, the MMLF expired on March 31, 2021