bear interest rate

The loans will be sold without recourse, and bear interest rates as low as 1 percent.

Those notes carry a coupon of 15 percent, and Mr. Mann guessed that they could be replaced with new notes bearing interest rates "of around 12-ish, in the current market."

The cooperative will use proceeds of the certificates, which are guaranteed by the Rural Electrification Agency, to repay Government loans bearing interest rates of up to 11 1/2 percent.

The financing, which will refund series 53 and 54 bonds bearing interest rates as high as 9 7/8 percent, is expected to be the last M.A.C. financing until the third quarter.

Some $2.6 billion of these bonds still bear interest rates between 11 percent and 15 percent - well above today's market rates for similar bonds - and they represent the largest block of tax-exempt municipal bonds that have not been refinanced.