If the SIV-ABCP model involved a degree of maturity mismatch, the investment banks pushed this to extremes. The entire business model of investment banks was based on wholesale funding. The most elastic vehicles for this were so-called repurchase agreements, or repo. In a repo transaction a bank would buy a security and pay for the purchase by immediately reselling it for a period of as little as one night or as long as three months, with a promise to repurchase at a certain price.
