You might have read headlines in the past couple of days that the Federal Reserve is planning to wind down its bank term funding program when it expires on March 11, literally two months away. Michael Barr is the Fed’s vice chairman for bank supervision and he signalled that the program would not be extended.
The purpose of the bank term funding program was to provide emergency liquidity to banks that needed cash by pledging collateral with the Fed at face value for up to a year. This program was implemented in the wake of the failure of silicon valley bank as a way for banks that were experiencing liquidity issues to access cash without having to sell assets that are in the “held to maturity” category. The Fed would hold these as collateral on the balance sheet at their face value.
So why is the use of this project growing rapidly at a time when the program is about to expire?
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Host: Victor Menasce
email: podcast@victorjm.com
