FRBSF ECONOMIC LETTER Number 2002-30, October 11, 2002 Setting the Interest Rate The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy goals are the government or U.S. government-agency securities, maintenance of low inflation and sustainable out- on which it receives a rate of return referred to as put growth. Under current operating procedures, the repo or RP rate.The RP market is huge; some the Fed chooses a target for a short-term interest estimates are upwards of $500 billion in transactions rate—specifically, the overnight federal funds rate, per day (Stigum 1988).The Fed is a very small which is an overnight interbank lending rate—that player in this market, with a typical daily transac- is believed to be consistent with those policy goals. tion (if any) of $1–$3 billion.Therefore, its open market operations can have little direct effect on To hit its interest rate target, the Fed relies primar- the equilibrium value of the RP rate. ily on open market operations—it buys and sells securities to adjust the supply of reserves available Open market operations, however, do have a direct to depository institutions to meet their reserve effect on the interest rate in the federal funds market. requirements and to clear payments transactions. In this market, depository institutions actually trade The Fed also can supply reserves by lending directly the reserves they hold in Federal Reserve accounts, to depositories through the discount window.How- which are used: (along with vault cash on hand) ever, traditionally, banks have not used the discount to meet reserve requirements, for check-clearing window as a routine source of funding. Moreover, and other settlement of interbank transactions, and they have been reluctant to borrow at the window for payment to the Fed for financial services ren- even during tight money market conditions, when dered. By settling its transactions involving RPs the demand for reserves is exceptionally high, thus with bank reserves, the Fed essentially determines resulting in periodic spikes in the federal funds rate. the supply of reserves in the banking system and The willingness of banks to make use of the dis- thereby exercises significant control over the federal count window as a backup source of liquidity could funds rate.Therefore, when Fed policy targets a change if the Fed were to adopt its recently pro- market interest rate, it targets the federal funds rate. posed rule changes governing the administration of the discount window (Madigan and Nelson 2002). Why do movements in the federal funds rate in- Under these rule changes, the Fed also would alter fluence the RP rate and other short-term market its operating procedures; it would effectively place rates? Suppose a commercial bank wants to raise a cap on the federal funds rate by standing ready overnight funds on short notice. It might borrow to supply reserves on demand to qualified banks at reserves in the federal funds market, or it might that predetermined interest rate cap. sell securities “under repo.” In the former case, the bank borrows at the federal funds rate; in the latter This Economic Letter describes key features of the case, it borrows at the RP rate. Because there are Fed’s current operating procedures for “setting” only minor differences in the quality of the two short-term market interest rates, indicates how the assets, their rates remain very closely tied together proposed rule changes for discount window borrow- due to the elimination of arbitrage opportunities ing affect the implementation of monetary policy, that would otherwise exist for banks who partic- and outlines the economic benefits that are expected ipate in both markets. Similarly, other short-term to accrue from the rule changes. money market interest rates respond in kind in order to maintain a portfolio balance under which Open market operations and market interest rates all assets yield the same expected return after ad- The Fed affects market interest rates by buying and justing for risk, maturity, and liquidity differences. selling securities in the open market. Most of those Hence, when the Fed adjusts its target for the fed- open market operations are temporary in that they eral funds rate, all other short-term interest rates consist of very short-maturity (usually overnight) tend to move with it. Indeed, some short-term repurchase agreements—repos or RPs—whereby interest rates may change in anticipation of the the Fed acquires temporary ownership of U.S. change in the target. FRBSF Economic Letter 2 Number 2002-30, October 11, 2002 Controlling the federal funds rate Figure 1 Over time, the Fed can hit its interest rate target EffectiveFigure 1: dailyEffective federal daily funds federal rate funds and rate target & target rate on average.The degree of control that it exercises rate over the federal funds rate in the very short run, Percent however, is limited. Figure 1 shows the short-run 18 volatility in the average daily federal funds rate, 16 which reflects several features of the market. In Effective daily funds rate recent years, the Fed has restricted its (temporary) 14 open market operations to one intervention per day (if at all).The size of this intervention corresponds 12 Target rate + 100 basis pts. to the anticipated reserves need of depositories. 10 However, actual supply and demand for reserves can differ from what is anticipated. Shocks to banks’ 8 demand for federal funds arrive throughout the day, 6 while daily shocks to the supply of federal funds originate with unanticipated changes in Treasury 4 balances maintained at the Fed, along with changes 2 in banks’ demands for currency.To the extent that Target rate these demand and supply shocks are not completely 0 offset by open market operations, the federal funds 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 rate will deviate from its target.The larger and more frequent are the shocks relative to the overall vol- interest rate in the form of “earnings credits” that ume of bank reserves, the greater is the volatility can be applied toward the purchase of the Fed’s in the federal funds rate (Hamilton 1996, Furfine financial services, such as check-clearing.The de- 1997, and Bartolini, et al. 2002). mand for required clearing balances is generally limited by the volume of services purchased and Factors that influence how responsive the federal is less interest-sensitive than the precautionary funds rate is to shocks include the relative impor- holdings. Failure to maintain the committed re- tance that banks attach to various functions that quired clearing balances also may result in both bank reserves perform, along with the opportunity pecuniary and nonpecuniary penalties (Clouse and cost, or lost interest income, that banks incur from Elmendorf 1997). holding positive reserve balances, which are leg- islated to be non-interest bearing. Currently, most The discount window rule changes banks must hold reserves in the form of vault cash Currently, eligible depository institutions can bor- and deposits at the Fed as a certain percentage of row directly from the Fed’s discount window to their checkable deposit account liabilities.These meet short-term unanticipated liquidity needs. One requirements must be met on average over a two- category of these (collateralized) loans, termed week reserve maintenance period, with allowance “adjustment credit,”comprises loans that are usually for some carry-forward provisions (Feinman 1993). overnight in maturity and are made at an adminis- The final day for adjusting reserves to meet required tered interest rate, termed the discount rate. How- reserves is known as “bank settlement day” and is ever, for reasons described below, banks make only normally characterized by heightened activity in limited use of the discount window for adjustment the federal funds market (Clouse and Dow 2002). credit borrowing.The discount window also is used for seasonal borrowings, mostly associated with Banks face a modest penalty for intraday overdrafts agricultural production loans, and for “extended on their reserve accounts (Coleman 2002) and a credit” for banks with longer-maturity liquidity very stiff penalty on overnight overdrafts (400 basis needs resulting from exceptional circumstances. points above the market rate).Avoiding overnight overdrafts can be difficult for banks, since they do Under current operating procedures, the discount not have full control over the timing and magnitude rate normally lies 25 to 50 basis points below the of outflows from their reserve accounts that are federal funds rate.To prevent banks from trying to required to settle transactions.This unpredictability exploit the spread between the federal funds rate gives rise to a precautionary demand for reserves. and the discount rate, the Fed requires that banks Banks also may voluntarily agree to hold what are present a need for funds that is appropriate to the (perhaps, unfortunately) termed “required clearing discount facilities’ intent (Clouse 1994). For exam- balances” at the Fed on which they earn an implicit ple, a discount window loan would not be granted FRBSF Economic Letter 3 Number 2002-30, October 11, 2002 to enable a bank to conclude planned investment or the simplification of discount window borrowing loan opportunities. In addition, banks are expected procedures should lead to reduced administrative to have exhausted all other reasonable sources of costs.Third, these simplifications also will help clarify credit before borrowing from the window and the intent of individual discount window regula- should expect to face greater regulatory scrutiny tory decisions, since less subjective assessment is if they borrow at the window too often. Due to required. Finally,monetary policy could be rendered these nonpecuniary costs, many banks have become more effective, to the extent that the discount rate reluctant to borrow at the discount window for can become a tool for capping the federal funds adjustment credit, concerned over a perceived “neg- rate.This cap can be adjusted to keep the federal ative signal” that this action would send.