Monetary policy and the reserves market

The initial link between monetary policy and the economy occurs in the market for reserves. The Federal Reserve's policies influence the demand for or supply of reserves at banks and other deposi­tory institutions, and through this market, the effects of monetary policy are transmitted to the rest of the economy. Therefore, to un­derstand how monetary policy is related to the economy, one must first understand what the reserves market is and how it works.

The demand for reserves has two components: required reserves and excess reserves. All depository institutions—commercial banks, saving banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions—must retain a percentage of certain types of deposits to be held as reserves. The reserve requirements are set by the Federal Reserve under the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Mon­etary Control Act of 1980. At the end of 1993,4,148 member bank's 6,042 non-member banks, 495 branches and agen­cies of foreign banks, 61 Edge Act and agreement corporations, and 3,238 thrift institutions were subject to reserve requirements.

Since the early 1990s, reserve requirements have been applied only to transaction deposits (basi­cally, interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts). Required reserves are a frac­tion of such deposits; the fraction—the required reserve ratio—is set by the Board of Governors within limits prescribed by law.

Thus, total required reserves expand or contract with the level of transaction deposits and with the required reserve ratio set by the Board; in practice, however, the required reserve ratio has been ad­justed only infrequently. Depository institutions hold required re­serves in one of two forms: vault cash (cash on hand at the bank) or, more important for monetary policy, required reserve balances in accounts with the Reserve Bank for their Federal Reserve District.

Depositories use their accounts at Federal Reserve Banks not only to satisfy their reserve requirements but also to clear many financial transactions. Given the volume and unpredictability of trans­actions that clear through their accounts every day, depositories need to maintain a cushion of funds to protect themselves against debits that could leave their accounts overdrawn at the end of the day and subject to penalty. Depositories that find their required reserve balances insufficient to provide such protection may open supplemental accounts for required clearing balances. These addi­tional balances earn interest in the form of credits that can be used to defray the cost of services, such as check-clearing and wire transfers of funds and securities, that the Federal Reserve provides.

Some depository institutions choose to hold reserves even beyond those needed to meet their reserve and clearing requirements. These additional balances, which provide extra protection against overdrafts and deficiencies in required reserves, are called excess reserves; they are the second component of the demand for re­serves (a third component if required clearing balances are in­cluded). In general, depositories hold few excess reserves because these balances do not earn interest; nonetheless, the demand for these reserves can fluctuate greatly over short periods, complicat­ing the Federal Reserve's task of implementing monetary policy.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29