On Thursday, August 23, 2007, the Federal Reserve’s System Open Market Account (“SOMA”) will redeem $5 billion of Treasury bill holdings. This action is designed to give the Federal Reserve Open Market Trading Desk (the “Desk”) greater flexibility in the day-to-day management of reserve levels to offset factors that may add reserves to the banking system, such as additional discount window borrowings.
To achieve the $5 billion redemption, SOMA will purchase $7,126,019,000 of the 2/21/08 26-week Treasury bill (912795C82), $5,239,824,000 of the 11/23/07 13-week Treasury bill (912795B34), and will not participate in the 9/20/07 4-week Treasury bill (912795A27) auction. As with all SOMA purchases in the Treasury auctions, the amounts purchased are “add-ons” to the amounts publicly announced and issued by Treasury.
The Desk will continue to evaluate the need for the use of other tools to add flexibility to its open market operations. These may include further Treasury bill redemptions, reverse repurchase agreements, and Treasury bill sales. |
