Tools of The Federal Reserve: Discount Rates and Reserve Requirements

Federal Reserve System, commonly referred to as Fed, was established in 1913. This was after American congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in December the same year, establishing a new set of institutions which were meant to govern the relationship between banks, the government, and the production of money (Broz 1997 p. 1). The Federal Reserve System divides the nation in 12 districts, each with its own federal reserve bank (Boyes & Melvin, 2006). Overall administrative structure of the system consists of: Board of Governors. The board is headed by a chairman who is appointed by the president to a four year term (Boyes & Melvin, 2006). The chairman serves as a leader and also as a spokesperson for

Also known as Cash Reserve Ratio, it is the percentage of deposits which commercial banks are required to keep as cash according to the directions of the central bank. (Times) . When a bank is left with excess reserves they can do a federal refund and lend money to other banks that might be running low on reserves. The reserve ratio is applied when the bank is low on the amount of reserves it has, at this time the bank is than forced to reduce checkable deposits while reducing its money supply. In some cases is also may need to increase its reserves. The bank can increase its reserves by selling bonds, which would also lower the money supply in the

The Federal Reserve plays a vital role as the intermediary in clearing and settling interbank payments to assure that the millions of transactions performed each day are processed safely and efficiently. Acting as the “Banker’s Bank”, the Federal Reserve Banks provide various services to the nation’s banks such as check processing, electronic transfers, and ensuring there is enough cash in circulation to meet public demand. As fiscal agent for the U.S. government, the Reserve Banks pay Treasury checks and issue, transfer, and redeem U.S. government

After several years of financial turmoil and panics, particularly the panic of 1907, the U.S. policymakers realized the need for banking and currency reform. The Federal Reserve Act was enacted on December 13, 1913. It was an act of congress that setup the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve

After the Revolutionary War, many of the country’s citizens were in great debit and there was widespread economic disruption. The country was in need of an economic overhaul and the new country’s leaders would need to decide how to do this to ensure the new country did not fall apart. After two unsuccessful attempts at a national banking system, the Federal Reserve System was created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Since its inception, the Federal Reserve System has evolved into a central banking system that grows with the country. The Federal Reserve System provides this country with a central bank that is able to pursue consistent monetary policies. My goal in this paper is to help the reader to understand why the Federal

The Federal Reserve has three tools to help maintain and make changes within money supply and policies. The first tool and most popular tool is open market operations. The Reserve uses this instrument to regulate the rate of federal funds within the system, which is merely the rate in which banks borrow reserves from other banks. With this tool, they can alter the interest rates and amount of money on the open market. Therefore, the Reserve can essentially control the total money stream, whether that is expanding and contracting it.

The Federal Reserve exercises its power to stimulate stable employment economies and economic prices. The pursuit of the required employment rate and the creation of price stability, the Federal Reserve can increase or decrease the interest rate.

The act stated that its purposes were "to provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes." After the implementation of the Federal Reserve, several laws were passed to supplement it. Some of the key laws affecting the Federal Reserve Act are the Banking act of 1935; the Employment Act of 1946; the 1970 amendments to the Bank Holding Company Act; the International Banking Act of 1978; the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978; the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980; the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991. In two of the above-named acts, Congress defined the main goals of national economic policy. These acts are the Employment Act of 1946 and the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. The main goals of the Federal Reserve are economic growth, a high level of employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. The Federal Reserve System is considered to be an independent central bank. It is an independent central bank only in the sense that its decisions do not have to be passed by the

The Federal Reserve System was created by Congress in 1913 and passed the Federal Reserve Act in order to provide for a safer and more flexible banking and monetary system. According to the changing needs of the system, its objectives have been changing throughout the history of the Fed. At first, “its original purposes were to give the country an elastic currency, provide facilities for discounting commercial credits, and improve the supervision of the banking system under a decentralized bank.” (The Federal Reserve System, 1984, 1). Prior to its establishment (the Fed), the supply of bank credit and money was inelastic, thus resulting in an irregular flow of credit and money, and contributed to unstable economic development. These objectives were aspects economic policies and national monetary. However, through time, stability and growth of the economy, high employment levels, stability in the purchasing power of the dollar, and reasonable balance in transactions with foreign currencies have become to be recognized as primary objectives of the governmental economic policy.

The CB uses open market operations to buy and sell securities as a means of implementing their monetary policies. They also used the open market operations as a way to control the liquidity of available money by influencing the short term interest and the supply of base money; therefore as a result controlling the supply of money. They also set the target rate for the feds and setting the discount rate at which for member banks to lend money to each other. The Feds also evaluate the bank mergers and also implements foreign exchange policy on behalf of US government and the

The Federal Reserve, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, Department of Commerce and Treasury Department play crucial roles in the value and availability of money in the USA economy. First, the Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States. It is run by a Board of Governors appointed by the president and serves as a bank to banks. It performs five general functions to promote the effective operation of the U.S. economy. One, it conducts the nation's monetary policy to promote maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates in the U.S. economy. Second, it promotes the stability of the financial system and seeks to minimize and contain systemic risks through active monitoring and engagement in the

The first to be discussed is the discount rate is the interest rate charged by the Federal Reserve to banks for short term loan basis. The increase and decrease of the money supply is determined by the discount rate. Discount rate would be used is a bank needed twenty million dollars, the money would be borrowed from the United States treasury but has to be paid back at a interest rate of three percent. This monetary tool would be used with inflation if the expected inflation increases so will the discount rate and vice versus at the same rate remaining equivalent. During periods of time with high unemployment rate the discount rate is lowered in order to counteract high unemployment and to prevent the possibility of a recession. Secondly, there is the ratio reserve. Ratio reserve is the amount of money that has to be kept at a bank on reserve; this amount can be adjusted to back outstanding deposits. Ration reserve creates the marginal money supply at any given moment due to the Fed raising or lowering the reserve requirements. Although it is rarely used to control the money supply it is a tool that can be used. An example of how it would be used would be if Will comes in and deposit one thousand dollars and the reserve amount is ten percent, of that one thousand dollars one hundred will go to the reserve ratio. Allowing the other ninety percent to be used as a money supply for loans and etc. In the case of unemployment and high inflation the Fed has to lower the reserve ratio in order to decrease the unemployment rate and inflation because if the reserve ratio is lower then the economy and the money supply is moving more vividly. Lastly is the open market operations. Open market operations is the act of buying and selling Treasury securities’ between the Fed and certain selected banks in the open market, it is directed by the FOMC. Open market operations would be considered

Prior to the institution of the Federal Reserve Act, the U.S. financial system’s basic structure was determined by the National Banking Acts of 1863, 1864, and 1865 (Broz, 1999). The purpose of the legislation was to provide a uniform national currency and to raise revenue for the federal government during wartime (Broz, 1999). While effective in its main purposes, it was flawed in the fact that the increase of available currency had little to no effect on consumer demand which led to large seasonal swings in interest rates and banking panics (Friedman & Schwartz, 168-169). In an attempt to rectify the shortcomings of the National Banking System, government turned to the New York Clearinghouse Association, purportedly known as the first central bank. Originally responsible for the settlement of payments between financial institutions, it was chosen because it was the only source at the time that had the ability to provide funds during high demand periods through a discount window or an open market operation (Broz, 1999). In the end, it failed to maintain an adequate amount of liquid reserves to counteract the monetary crisis‘s that ensued during the agricultural harvest cycles, when currency demands accelerated.

One form of direct control can be exercised by adjusting the legal reserve ratio (the proportion of its deposits that a member bank must hold in its reserve account), and as a result, increasing or decreasing the amount of new loans that the commercial banks can make. Because loans give rise to new deposits, the possible money supply is, in this way, expanded or reduced. This policy tool has not been used too much in recent years. The money supply may also be influenced through manipulation of the discount rate, which is the rate if interest charged by the Federal Reserve banks on short-term secured loans to member banks. Since these loans are typically sought to maintain reserves at their required level, an increase in the cost of such loans has an effect similar to that of increasing the reserve requirement. The classic method of indirect control is through open-market operations, first widely used in the 1920s and now used daily to make some adjustment to the market. Federal Reserve bank sales or purchases of securities on the open market tend to reduce or increase the size of commercial bank reserves. When the Federal Reserve sells securities, the purchasers pay for them with checks drawn on their deposits, thereby reducing the reserves of the banks on which the checks are drawn. The three instruments of control explained above have been conceded to be more effective in preventing inflation in times of high economic activity than in bringing about revival from a

They must purchase capital stock in their District Reserve Bank, entitling them to a six percent stock dividend, thus issuing them the right to vote for six of the nine Directors of that District Bank. Within this structure there was the Monetary Control Act of 1980 which imposed a reserve requirement on all depository institutions, which allows them to borrow and receive other services from the Fed. This remains beneficial because by enabling banks to borrow reserves from the Reserve Banks the liquidity of the entire banking system is increased.