Primary dealers amped up demand for liquidity at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s term repo operation Thursday as institutions scrambled to secure funding to cover the end of the quarter.

The operation for 14-day repurchase agreements was oversubscribed -- attracting $72.8 billion in bids -- even after the New York Fed doubled the maximum size of the offering to $60 billion. The overnight operation, conversely, attracted just $50.1 billion of bids, around half the $100 billion maximum offering.

The maximum offering for both operations was upsized Thursday. The previous 14-day operation of $30 billion on Tuesday was more than twice oversubscribed, while Wednesday’s $75 billion overnight action saw $92 billion of bids submitted.

“The overnight operation gives me some hope, but the term repo still keeps my blood pressure high,” said Priya Misra, head of interest rate strategy at TD Securities in New York. “There’s still demand for funding for quarter-end that’s not being met and they got one more chance.”

The central bank has been injecting liquidity into the funding markets since Sept. 17, when the rate on overnight general collateral repo jumped to 10%, about four times greater than usual levels, as cash reserves were out of alignment with the volume of securities on dealer balance sheets.

The New York Fed will conduct both overnight and 14-day repo operations on Friday. Misra said she believes the central bank could increase the size of the last term offering to mitigate any chance of a spike in funding rates on Monday.

Trading levels for repurchase agreements further down the line indicate that overnight rates could once again be challenged. The overnight rate for Monday was quoted around 3.25%, according to traders familiar with the transactions who asked not to identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly.

While that is not necessarily predictive of where rates will be at the end of the month, it does indicate that some market participants are on alert for a shift back up.

“We’re not completely out of the woods,” she said. “If the term operation isn’t upsized tomorrow, you’ll get a spike in repo.”