The Fed pays interest to banks on all reserves, largely crammed down banks’ throats via past QE. How much free money is that?
Understanding Reserves
The Fed used to pay banks interest on “excess reserves”. Excess reserves are total reserves minus required reserves.
As announced on March 15, 2020, the Board of Governors reduced reserve requirement ratios on net transaction accounts to 0 percent, effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions.
Since there are no reserve requirements on either checking or savings deposits, all reserves are effectively excess reserves, and the Fed pay banks interest on everything. That includes free money crammed down banks throats via QE.
Reverse Repos
The Fed also pay interest on reverse repos. A reverse repurchase agreement (RRP, or reverse repo) is a short-term agreement to sell securities in order to buy them back at a slightly higher price. The primary recipient of reverse repo interest are the money market funds.
It’s not important to understand these functions, just follow the math below.
Target Fed Funds Rate
The New York Fed explains: The New York Fed conducts repo and reverse repo operations each day as a means to help keep the federal funds rate in the target range set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
In order to suppress a free market in interest rates and to help control the mess the Fed created via Quantitative Easing (QE), now Quantitative Tightening (QT), the Fed is handing out free money left and right.
To calculate free money, we need to watch three things: Interest rates, reserves, and reverse repos.
Reserve Balances at the Fed, Reverse Repos, Interest Rate
Understanding the Free Money Forces
- In isolation, rising interest rates add to the free money given to financial institutions.
- QT reduces bank reserves and thus free money.
- Reverse Repos are now slowly declining. This also reduces free money payouts.
The net impact of these forces has been pretty stable for about six months, roughly between $250 billion and $280 billion in free money given to banks at an annual rate.
QT is now scheduled to decline at a faster rate than rate hikes, so free money will now go down over time.
Free Money at Taxpayer Expense
My numbers are approximate, using end of month interest rates and monthly average balances. In practice, this is all calculated daily. But within a few billion dollars, the Fed is giving banks about $273 billion annually at the current rate.
It’s important to note that free money that should be going to taxpayers. Instead the Fed gives it to banks because its QE/QT programs made a huge mess out of monetary policy.
Thank former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke for this. He is the one who lobbied Congress for the right to send out all of this free money. He said it was necessary for the QE program he launched, and every Fed president since maintained.
Free Money Wasn’t Enough!
Please note that banks were not happy with all this free money. Silicon Valley Bank blew up because it wanted more.
Rather than take deposits and park them at the Fed, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and many other banks purchased longer-dated treasuries and got clobbered when interest rates rose.
This was pure total greed and the Fed and FDIC stood back and watched it all happen.
The Fed Admits a Mistake in Collapse of SVB, Seeks More Power Anyway
On May 1, I commented The Fed Admits a Mistake in Collapse of SVB, Seeks More Power Anyway
Supervisors Ignored 31 Open Findings
SVBFG had 31 open supervisory findings when it failed in March 2023, about triple the number observed at peer firms. The supervisory findings at SVBFG included core areas, such as governance and risk management, liquidity, interest rate risk management, and technology.
The Fed admits it needs new liquidity rules now. But don’t worry. it will wait several years to implement them.
Bank Contagion Spreads Despite Fed Assurances the System is Sound
On May 4, I commented Bank Contagion Spreads, Shares Plunge Again Despite Fed Assurances the System is Sound
It wasn’t just SVB. All the banks were unhappy with free money. SVB went under because it was the most greedy.
Dear FDIC and Fed, We Need a Genuine Safekeeping Bank, Not Band-Aids
The fed is proposing a Mickey Mouse overhaul when the real solution is simple.
I explained in detail in Dear FDIC and Fed, We Need a Genuine Safekeeping Bank, Not Band-Aids
Understanding the Real Problem
The 2023 bank failures arose from what the banks did with those uninsured deposits, not the fact that the deposits were uninsured.
Banks could easily have parked the money back at the Fed collecting generous amounts of free money because the Fed pays interest on reserves.
Instead, the banks made enormous bets that interest rates would not rise rapidly. When rates rose, paper losses soared, and the banks became capital impaired.
Pertinent Question
Why are banks allowed to gamble on interest rate policy with deposits allegedly payable on demand?
Logically, money cannot be available on demand while simultaneously parked in long-term treasuries, but that is precisely what FDIC and Fed regulations allow.
I offered a comprehensive solution in the above post. The Wall Street Journal, the Hill, and other media outfits turned down my Op-Ed but interested parties are invited to read and comment.
Meanwhile, month after month, we witness totally lame press conferences following FOMC meetings.
No one ever asks Jerome Powell about all this free money, Fed-sponsored greed, Fed losses on its portfolio of assets, money supply or anything else relevant to this important discussion.
The Fed and mainstream media continues to sweep this enormous mess under the rug.
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