WASHINGTON – Lending through the Federal Reserve Board's discount window grew less than 1% during the past week, to $136.2 billion.
Traditional borrowing by commercial banks fell 4.3%, to $61.3 billion, and there was $1 million of loans to unhealthy banks. Loans to investment banks budged up 0.5%, to $20.2 billion.
The Fed said it had extended $43.6 billion by Wednesday through the discount window to support American International Group Inc. The central bank also has a limited liability corporation designed to help to insurance giant. Loans there were valued at $18.5 billion.
Lending against asset-backed commercial paper held by money market mutual funds fell 10.3%, to $6.8 billion. The Fed has yet to make loans to another limited-liability corporation that will buy unsecured assets held by money markets.
The Fed's balance sheet also reflects $4.7 billion the Federal Reserve Bank of New York lent last week to investors under the Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility. The Treasury Department provided $100 million to the Fed this week to support the Talf but the central bank did not include that funding on its balance sheet.
Meanwhile, the New York Fed purchased $47.3 billion of mortgage-backed securities from the government-sponsored enterprises: $32.6 from Fannie Mae; $13.5 from Freddie Mac and $1.3 billion from Ginnie Mae. Total purchases were nearly four times higher than a week earlier.
The Fed's balance sheet grew 0.2% during the week to $2.1 trillion. Reserves held by financial institutions at the central bank increased 5.4%, to $822.4 billion.
