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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Earlier this year, the New York Fed and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted the fifth annual State-of-the-Field Conference on Cyber Risk to Financial Stability. Since 2017, this collaboration between the New York Fed and SIPA has brought together practitioners from across cyber security and finance to focus on three central questions: What are we learning about cyber risk to financial stability? What are we doing? And what’s next?
On our recent regional visit to New York’s North Country, we heard from stakeholders that delivering essential social services can be a major challenge due to the area’s vast geography and low population density, and that the nonprofit sector plays a critical role in addressing this issue. Building on our earlier report, this article examines how nonprofits support low- and moderate-income communities in both small towns and larger municipalities across the North Country.
New York Fed President John C. Williams delivered the 4th Suresh Tendulkar Memorial Lecture at the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai on July 5, 2024. In his remarks, he discussed the key principles of inflation targeting strategies that have proven foundational in helping the Fed and other central banks manage extreme uncertainty. These principles include the need for central banks to own the responsibility for price stability and have independence to act to achieve it; transparency and clear communication of goals, including an explicit numerical inflation target; and well-anchored inflation expectations.
New York Fed President John C. Williams traveled to the North Country region of upstate New York last month to hear from stakeholders about local economic conditions. He met with government officials, business owners, veterans and military families, and nonprofit and community leaders during this two-day Second District regional visit.
In this recurring column, Kartik Athreya, the New York Fed’s Director of Research, draws connections between broader economic policy issues and our everyday lives.
Expectations shape behavior. That’s why the Survey of Consumer Expectations, now in its 10th year, is such an important tool for central bankers. The monthly survey, produced by our Center for Microeconomic Data, has three main components: inflation expectations, labor market expectations, and household finance expectations. While all these expectations are important, I’ll focus here on inflation expectations, and how they shape people’s actions.
The New York Fed’s conference on culture in the financial services industry, held in May, marked the 10th anniversary of the Bank’s culture initiative.
