WASHINGTON — Total lending through the Federal Reserve Board's discount window continued to decline this week, off 11.4% from a week earlier, to $206.5 billion.
Traditional borrowing by commercial banks inched up 0.3%, to $90.2 billion on Wednesday.
The amount borrowed by investment banks fell 8.3%, to $47.3 billion.
The Fed said it had extended $41.6 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 that has lent $19.5 billion to AIG, up 28.8% from a week earlier.
Lending against asset-backed commercial paper held by money market mutual funds dropped 20.3%, to $27.4 billion. The Fed said it has yet to make loans to another limited liability corporation that will buy unsecured assets held by money markets.
There were no loans in the form of secondary credit to weak institutions or seasonal credit to banks in rural or resort regions.
Most of the discount window loans — $123.3 billion — will mature within 15 days. Another $41.6 billion will come due in 16 to 90 days and an additional $41.6 billion will be repaid in one to five years. The remaining $154 million will mature in one year.
Separate from the discount window loans, the Fed purchased $318.8 billion of commercial paper by Wednesday, a 2.1% increase from a week earlier.
The Fed's balance sheet grew 2.2%, to $2.3 trillion on Wednesday. Reserves held at the central bank by financial institutions grew 3.1%, to $801.7 billion.
