At the New York Fed, our mission is to make the U.S. economy stronger and the financial system more stable for all segments of society. We do this by executing monetary policy, providing financial services, supervising banks and conducting research and providing expertise on issues that impact the nation and communities we serve.
This is part of an ongoing educational series on nonbank financial institutions.
Nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) play a critical role in private credit, which has recently become a key source of financing for corporations. In this article, we describe private credit and its recent growth, the role of NBFIs in the private credit ecosystem, and how private credit interacts with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, prudential supervision, and financial stability objectives.
This is part of an ongoing educational series on nonbank financial institutions.
Hedge funds are a category of nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) that play a significant role in the U.S. financial system. Since they transact in a wide range of asset classes and are major counterparties of the largest banks, their activities increasingly affect market liquidity, price discovery, and overall market functioning. In this article, we discuss the role of hedge funds in the U.S. financial system, their growth, and their relevance to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, prudential supervision, and financial stability objectives.
This is part of an ongoing educational series on nonbank financial institutions.
Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are important nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs) in the U.S. financial system. Both are widely accessible investment vehicles that can hold various kinds of assets. Combined, nearly 75 percent of mutual fund and ETF assets are stocks, about 20 percent are bonds, and the rest are commodities and other assets, according to Morningstar data through September. Mutual funds and ETFs are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and are required to disclose information about their investment objectives, structures, and operations on a quarterly basis. This article details how mutual funds and ETFs differ, their recent growth, and their importance to the Federal Reserve’s objectives of monetary policy, prudential supervision, and financial stability. It does not cover money market mutual funds, which are a different type of NBFI.
Housing affordability is a challenge throughout the Federal Reserve’s Second District, putting a strain on household finances and communities in urban and rural areas, big cities, and small towns. The Community Development team at the New York Fed has created a body of work around the development, financing, and rehabilitation of multifamily affordable housing, publishing papers on affordable housing investments by private investment vehicles and pension funds. The team has hosted events on local policies and approaches to developing and rehabilitating affordable apartments, as well as efforts by faith-based organizations, hospitals, and institutional investors to increase the supply of affordable homes.
On Thursday, October 9, The New York Times published a transcript of an interview with New York Fed President John Williams. In it, he discussed the labor market, inflation, his monetary policy outlook, and central bank independence.
The New York Fed has unique responsibilities to support the Federal Reserve System’s monetary policy and financial stability goals. As part of that, the New York Fed participates in the foreign exchange (FX) market by intervening when directed by the Federal Open Market Committee and U.S. Treasury, conducting FX transactions for official sector account holders, managing international dollar liquidity facilities, and monitoring global market developments. It also sponsors the Foreign Exchange Committee (FXC), represents the U.S. on the Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC), and convenes the industry and public sector from around the world for FX market structure conferences.
Federal Reserve policymakers need current information about economic conditions to make well-informed monetary policy decisions. But hard data, such as GDP and the unemployment rate, is released with a significant lag, making it difficult to get a precise, real-time read on the economy, especially during times of rapid change.
As part of its mission to make the economy stronger and the financial system more stable, the New York Fed processes cash notes for banks, runs trillions of dollars in electronic bank payments annually, and auctions trillions more in U.S. Treasury notes each year.
In remarks in New York City on September 4, New York Fed President John C. Williams discussed his outlook for the economy and how he sees the path forward in the current moment.
In remarks at a conference in Mexico City on August 25, New York Fed President John C. Williams addressed three questions pertaining to the importance, measurement, and use of time-varying unobservable variables at central banks, with a particular focus on the neutral rate of interest, or r-star.
