Federal Reserve policymakers last month said they were in no rush to sell $1.1 trillion of mortgage-backed securities, with a majority preferring to wait until after the central bank starts raising interest rates.
"Most participants favored deferring asset sales for some time," while others wanted to announce a schedule or start sales soon, the Fed said in the minutes of its April 27-28 meeting. The minutes show that Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are still trying to reach a consensus over when and how fast to reduce the Fed's balance sheet as the economy recovers.
