WASHINGTON — Total lending through the Federal Reserve Board's discount window continued to decline this week, falling 1.1%, to $138.9 billion on Wednesday.
Traditional borrowing by commercial banks increased 0.7%, to $65.6 billion and there were no loans to unhealthy banks.
The Fed said it had extended $38.2 billion by Wednesday through the discount window to support American International Group Inc. The central bank has also established a limited liability corporation through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to help the insurance giant. Loans there are valued at $18.8 billion, unchanged from a week earlier.
Investment bank borrowing was off 0.4%, to $25.2 billion.
Lending against asset-backed commercial paper held by money market mutual funds decreased 18.7%, to nearly $10 billion. The Fed has yet to make loans to another limited liability corporation that will buy unsecured assets held by money markets.
Most of the discount window loans — $90.2 billion — will mature within 15 days. Another $38.2 billion will come due in one to five years and $10.3 billion will be repaid in 16 to 90 days. The final $303 million matures within 91 days to one year.
Separate from the discount window loans, the Fed purchased $242.5 billion of commercial paper by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the New York Fed said it purchased $25 billion in mortgage backed securities during the past week: $15.6 billion from Fannie Mae; $8.4 billion from Freddie Mac and $1 billion from Ginnie Mae.
Total assets at the Fed increased slightly to $1.9 trillion. Reserves held at the Fed by financial institutions fell 1.1%, to $701 billion.
