Fed Discount Window Borrowing Falls Again

WASHINGTON — Total lending through the Federal Reserve Board's discount window continued to decline this week, falling 4.1%, to $142.9 billion on Wednesday.

Traditional borrowing by commercial banks was off 1.6%, to $65.2 billion and the Fed said it lent $2 million to unhealthy banks, down from $17 million a week earlier.

The Fed said it had extended $37.4 billion by Wednesday through the discount window to support American International Group Inc. The central bank has also created a limited liability corporation through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with loans valued at $18.8 billion, down 1.8% from a week earlier.

Investment bank borrowing was off nearly 4%, to $26.1 billion.

Lending against asset-backed commercial paper held by money market mutual funds decreased 16.2%, to $14.2 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 — $84.7 billion — will mature within 15 days. Another $37.4 billion will come due in one to five years and $20.5 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 $251.2 billion of commercial paper by Wednesday, a 2.9% decline from a week earlier.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said it purchased $23.2 billion in mortgage backed securities during the past week: $14.7 billion from Freddie Mac; $7.2 billion from Fannie Mae and $1.4 billion from Ginnie Mae. Total purchases were up 4% from a week earlier.

Total assets at the Fed fell 0.4%, to $1.8 trillion. Reserves held at the Fed by financial institutions fell 7.3%, to $600.1 billion.

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