Patrick Dwyer, Eric LeSueur, Fabiola Ravazzolo, Will Riordan, and Josh Younger

An ample supply of reserves—consistent with the Fed’s “floor system”—and the smooth functioning of funding markets are critical to effectively implement monetary policy. Market disruptions occasionally require the rapid provision of additional liquidity. One way to do this is through open market operations conducted with primary dealers, in which the Fed increases the reserve supply either temporarily or more permanently.

Christian Cabanilla, Eric LeSueur, and Josh Younger

The Fed’s balance sheet, like any financial balance sheet, is a record of the assets acquired—either through open market operations or backstop lending—and the liabilities issued to fund those assets. So, it can be thought of as a record of monetary policy and other actions the Fed took to achieve its “dual mandate” and other responsibilities. In this article, we discuss the evolution and role of the Fed’s balance sheet in monetary policy and its implementation.

Eric LeSueur, Linsey Molloy, Will Riordan, and Josh Younger

The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. Its key entities are the Board of Governors, which is an independent federal government agency, 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The FOMC includes members of the Board of Governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four other regional Reserve Bank presidents who serve on a rotating basis. You might hear these entities more often referred to collectively as “the Fed,” for short.

Anna Nordstrom, Roberto Perli, and Julie Remache

In the spirit of the summer season, the New York Fed’s Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) thought it would contribute something to your summer reading list.

Roberto Perli and Eric LeSueur

The rise in inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic was a global phenomenon, and it prompted many central banks to tighten monetary policy to bring inflation down. A recently published Centre for Economic Policy Research e-book, “Monetary Policy Responses to the Post-Pandemic Inflation,” provides a collection of viewpoints on the actions of central banks and their effects across various economies and markets.

Eric LeSueur

Roberto Perli, Manager of the Federal Reserve’s System Open Market Account (SOMA), spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Business Economics on Tuesday, October 10. He discussed monetary policy implementation, the performance of the Federal Reserve’s implementation framework over recent stress episodes, and his perspective on money markets and reserve conditions going forward.

In May 2022, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced that the process to reduce the size of its balance sheet would begin on June 1. With that process now underway, this post reviews the initial months of runoff. We also highlight publicly available resources that provide data to monitor the ongoing runoff of the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account (SOMA), which holds the securities acquired through open market operations.