When the loans from the three programs are added together, credit extended to banks by the Fed stood at $312 billion on Wednesday, down from $323.3 billion on April 5. While the absolute amount of lending remains high and outstrips emergency lending at the peak of the financial crisis in 2008, total lending has been moving lower since the $343.7 billion peak on March 22. The moved down in lending "is consistent with ongoing improvement in bank liquidity, especially as falling rates have likely decreased unrealized losses on bank portfolios," TD Securities analysts said. "We will be watching Friday's bank deposit data for further confirmation that outflows have subsided, though we expect pressure on banks to persist in coming months."
The Fed also said in its data that borrowing from its
facility for central banks and other foreign official accounts
eased a bit further and stood at $30 billion on Wednesday, from
$40 billion the week before. The Fed does not reveal which
foreign institutions are using its
Foreign and International Monetary Authorities Repo Facility , but
borrowing in recent weeks has been tied to the Swiss National Bank.
The total size of the Fed's balance sheet moved to
$8.664 trillion, from April 5's $8.682 trillion.
(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
