The discount window provides loans to banks, and can help to stave off a cash crunch stemming from the financial sector. While it is meant to be a crucial tool for combating market stress, it has for decades carried negative connotations, prompting banks to avoid borrowing from it out of fear that doing so will make them look as if they are on shaky footing.

During the early days of the 2008 financial crisis, that stigma proved to be such a turnoff that the Fed had to open a special facility and auction off loans in order to provide liquidity to flailing markets. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has found that during the 2008 crisis, banks were willing to pay almost half a percentage point more to borrow from other sources — and once Lehman Brothers crashed, that premium jumped to 1.26 percent.

This time around, the Fed seems determined to get banks to borrow at the discount window. Central bank officials on Sunday slashed the interest rate charged on discount window loans and extended the loan periods, efforts aimed at making the option look like an attractive source of funding rather than a last-ditch act of desperation.

The need to destigmatize lending through the discount window had become more urgent in recent days because companies are increasingly finding it difficult to borrow short-term funds that they use for various expenses such as payroll and rent. If banks can tap the Fed without hesitation, it could send a signal that they can continue lending to companies, shoring up confidence in the market and preventing everyone from rushing to withdraw money at once.

Morgan Stanley moved ahead of its peers in using the discount window on Monday, but there is no indication that the bank is in financial distress, two of the people familiar with the matter said. One of those people added that the bank didn’t realize it was acting alone on Monday, and that its move might have stemmed from miscommunication with the other firms. It’s the first time a bank designated a “systemically important” has tapped the discount window since the financial crisis.