Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

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The last H.3 statistical release was published on September 17, 2020. Certain H.3 release items were consolidated onto the H.6 statistical release as of September 24, 2020. For more information on the consolidation and related changes, please see the announcements posted on August 20, 2020 and September 24, 2020.

This is the final publication of the H.3 statistical release. Certain H.3 release items will be consolidated onto the H.6 statistical release as of September 24, 2020. For more information on the consolidation and related changes, please see the announcement posted on August 20, 2020.

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. As a result, many of the release items on the Board's Statistical Release H.3, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," are zero. Consequently, the Board has decided to consolidate the remaining relevant items from the H.3 statistical release onto Statistical Release H.6, "Money Stock Measures."

The H.3 release items that will be consolidated onto the H.6 statistical release include the monetary base and nonborrowed reserves and their components. The components to be moved are (1) "Currency in circulation" and "Total balances maintained" for the monetary base and (2) "Total reserves" and "Total borrowings from the Federal Reserve" for nonborrowed reserves.

The last H.3 statistical release will be published on September 17, 2020. The first H.6 statistical release containing the monetary base and nonborrowed reserves will be published on September 24, 2020. On this same release, columns labeled "Traveler's checks" will be removed from the H.6 statistical release.

For a template of the first page of the consolidated H.6 statistical release, along with supplemental information on the consolidation, see the Technical Q&As associated with each release. Access to historical data for all H.3 release items will remain available through the Data Download Program (DDP). In addition, the H.3 release items being consolidated onto the H.6 statistical release will be available in the DDP in both the "build your own" and preformatted packages associated with the H.6 statistical release. Further refinements to the preformatted packages for the H.6 statistical release will also be made. The 12 "H.6 historical table" preformatted packages will no longer be available; all data elements of these packages are contained in the monthly or weekly "H.6 statistical release" packages.

The data for Wednesday, August 13, 2020, from the Board's H.3 statistical release are now available in the Data Download Program (DDP). https://www.federalreserve.gov/datadownload/Choose.aspx?rel=H3

The H.3 release for Thursday, August 13 is delayed and will be updated as soon as possible.

The H.3 release for Thursday, July 30 is delayed and will be updated as soon as possible.

As announced on March 15, 2020, the Board reduced reserve requirement ratios on net transaction accounts to 0 percent, effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions. As a result, many of the items related to reserve requirements and featured in tables 1 and 2 of the Board's Statistical Release H.3, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," are zero beginning with the two weeks ending April 8, 2020.

The Board's Statistical Release H.3, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," has been updated to incorporate information on the Federal Reserve's recent actions to support the flow of credit to households and businesses. From the two weeks ending March 25, 2020, forward, "Other credit extensions" in table 3 of the release will reflect all other credit extended by the Federal Reserve outside of the primary, secondary, or seasonal credit lending programs. Additional detail on the components of "Other credit extensions" is available in table 1 of the H.4.1 statistical release under "Loans."

The interest rates paid on reserve balances published at a maintenance period frequency in table 1 of the Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," have been discontinued. As previously announced, effective July 23, 2015, the Federal Reserve Board changed the formula for calculating interest for depository institutions with excess balances to be based on the daily interest rate on excess reserves (IOER rate) and the daily balance maintained, rather than the maintenance period IOER rate and the average balance maintained over the maintenance period. The IOER and IORR rates effective for a given day are now published on the "Interest on Required Balances and Excess Balances" page on the Federal Reserve Board's public website and are available in the Policy Rates Data Download Program. Historical data for all discontinued series, including maintenance period interest rates, remain available through the H.3 Data Download Program. For more information on this change, see the H.3 Technical Q&As.

As previously announced, effective July 23, 2015, the Federal Reserve Board changed the formula for calculating interest for depository institutions with excess balances. The new formula is based on the daily interest rate on excess reserves (IOER rate) and the daily balance maintained, rather than the maintenance period IOER rate and the average balance maintained over the maintenance period. The IOER and IORR rates effective for a given day are now published on the "Interest on Required Balances and Excess Balances" page on the Federal Reserve Board's public website and are available in the Policy Rates Data Download Program. The interest rates paid on reserve balances published at a maintenance period frequency in table 1 of the Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," will be discontinued with the H.3 release published on August 6, 2015. Historical data for all discontinued series, including maintenance period interest rates, will remain available through the H.3 Data Download Program. For more information on this change, see the H.3 Technical Q&As.

As previously announced, effective July 23, 2015, the Federal Reserve Board changed the formula for calculating interest for depository institutions with excess balances. The new formula is based on the daily interest rate on excess reserves (IOER rate) and the daily balance maintained, rather than the maintenance period IOER rate and the average balance maintained over the maintenance period. The IOER and IORR rates effective for a given day are now published on the "Interest on Required Balances and Excess Balances" page on the Federal Reserve Board's public website and are available in the Policy Rates Data Download Program. The interest rates paid on reserve balances published at a maintenance period frequency in table 1 of the Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," will be discontinued with the H.3 release published on August 6, 2015. Historical data for all discontinued series, including maintenance period interest rates, will remain available through the H.3 Data Download Program. For more information on this change, see the H.3 Technical Q&As.

Effective February 18, 2014, balances maintained at the Reserve Banks by entities that were designated as systemically important financial market utilities by the Financial Stability Oversight Council under Title VIII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will no longer be reported in the Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base." These balances will be reported in "Other" under the line for "Deposits with F.R. Banks, other than reserve balances" in table 1 and in "Other" under the line for "Deposits" in tables 8 and 9 of the Board's H.4.1 statistical release, "Factors Affecting Reserve Balances of Depository Institutions and Condition Statement of Federal Reserve Banks."

For release at
4:30 p.m. EDT
July 11, 2013


The Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," includes data for the first time depicting (1) the penalty-free band around reserve balance requirements provided for in the final phase of the simplification of reserves administration, (2) interest rates paid on balances maintained to satisfy reserve balance requirements and balances maintained that exceed the top of the penalty-free band, and (3) a monetary base series calculated based on a simplified formula. At the same time, several series formerly published in the H.3 statistical release have been discontinued, including the break-adjusted, seasonally adjusted monetary base. Historical data for all discontinued series remain available through the Data Download Program. For supplemental information on the new H.3 statistical release, see: www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/h3_technical_qa.htm.

For release at
4:30 p.m. EDT
June 6, 2013

The Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base," will be modified on July 11, 2013, to include data for the first time depicting (1) the penalty-free band around reserve balance requirements provided for in the final phase of the simplification of reserves administration, (2) interest rates paid on balances maintained to satisfy reserve balance requirements and balances maintained that exceed the top of the penalty-free band, and (3) a monetary base series calculated based on a simplified formula. At the same time, several series currently published in the H.3 statistical release will be discontinued, including the break-adjusted, seasonally adjusted monetary base. Historical data for all discontinued series will remain available through the Data Download Program. A template for the modified H.3 statistical release, along with supplemental information, can be found here: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/upcoming-changes.htm.

For release at
4:30 P.M. EST
November 29, 2012

SPECIAL NOTICE

Data on reserves and the monetary base have been revised to reflect the result of annual reviews of seasonal factors and break factors. Revisions to seasonal factors start in January 1999, while revisions to break factors begin in January 2011. Break factors remove discontinuities (or "breaks") associated with regulatory changes in reserve requirements, such as the annual indexations of the low-reserve tranche and the reserve requirement exemption.[1] The maximum revision to total reserves, nonborrowed reserves, required reserves, and the monetary base in any maintenance period was $956 million; most revisions were less than $500 million.

A more detailed description of the methods for constructing break factors and seasonal factors is available under "Annual review of break and seasonal factors" on the Federal Reserve's website. Historical data, updated each week, are available from the Data Download Program website.

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1. The Monetary Control Act of 1980 established a reserve ratio of 3 percent against the first $25 million in net transaction deposits (low-reserve tranche) at each depository institution. Since 1982, the low-reserve tranche has been indexed each January by 80 percent of the previous year's (June 30 to June 30) growth rate of net transaction deposits at all depository institutions. For all reserve maintenance periods ending in 2012, the low-reserve tranche is $71.0 million, rising to $79.5 million for maintenance periods ending in 2013.
Under the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, the first $2 million of reservable liabilities of each depository institution was exempted from reserve requirements. Since 1983, this exemption amount has been indexed each year by 80 percent of the rate of increase of the reservable liabilities at all depository institutions over the preceding year (June 30 to June 30). For all reserve maintenance periods ending in 2012, the reserve requirement exemption is $11.5 million, rising to $12.4 million for maintenance periods ending in 2013.

For release at
4:30 P.M. EDT
July 26, 2012

As stated in the April 5, 2012, press release, the Federal Reserve Board is in the process of simplifying the administration of reserve requirements. The first steps in this process include discontinuing "as of" adjustments related to deposit revisions, replacing all other as-of adjustments with direct compensation, and eliminating the contractual clearing balance program. As a result, required clearing balances and adjustments to compensate for float are zero beginning with the two weeks ending July 25, 2012. All other as-of adjustments are zero beginning with the two weeks ending August 8, 2012. These items are referenced in several footnotes in table 2 of the release.

Users can now view plotted data as column charts, and add U.S. recession shading, while using the "View chart" function of the Data Download Program (DDP).

For release at
4:30 P.M. EDT
October 27, 2011

SPECIAL NOTICE

Data on reserves and the monetary base have been revised to reflect the result
of annual reviews of seasonal factors and break factors. Revisions to seasonal
factors start in January 1999, while revisions to break factors begin in January
2010. Break factors remove discontinuities (or "breaks") associated with regulatory
changes in reserve requirements, such as the annual indexations of the low-reserve
tranche and the reserve requirement exemption.1 The maximum revision to total
reserves, nonborrowed reserves, required reserves, and the monetary base in any
maintenance period was $2.0 billion; most revisions were less than $700 million.

A more detailed description of the methods for constructing break factors and
seasonal factors is available under "Annual review of break and seasonal factors"
on the Federal Reserve's website (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/hist/).
Historical data, updated each week, are available there as well.

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1. The Monetary Control Act of 1980 established a reserve ratio of 3 percent
against the first $25 million in net transaction deposits (low-reserve tranche) at
each depository institution. Since 1982, the low-reserve tranche has been indexed
each January by 80 percent of the previous year's (June 30 to June 30) growth rate
of net transaction deposits at all depository institutions. For all reserve
maintenance periods ending in 2011, the low-reserve tranche is $58.8 million,
rising to $71.0 million for maintenance periods ending in 2012.
Under the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, the first $2
million of reservable liabilities of each depository institution was exempted from
reserve requirements. Since 1983, this exemption amount has been indexed each year
by 80 percent of the rate of increase of the reservable liabilities at all
depository institutions over the preceding year (June 30 to June 30). For all
reserve maintenance periods ending in 2011, the reserve requirement exemption is
$10.7 million, rising to $11.5 million for maintenance periods ending in 2012.

For release on
May 26, 2011

The Board's H.3 statistical release ("Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and
the Monetary Base") for May 26, 2011, includes a revision to the amount of loans
outstanding under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility for the two weeks
ending May 18, 2011. For more information on the revision, please see the cover note
attached to the corrected H.4.1 release dated May 12, 2011.

For release at
4:30 p.m. EST
January 27, 2011

The Board's H.3 statistical release, "Aggregate Reserves of Depository
Institutions and the Monetary Base," reflects the closing of the American
International Group, Inc. (AIG), recapitalization plan, which occurred on
January 14, 2011. The recapitalization plan was designed to restructure and
facilitate repayment of the financial support provided to AIG by the U.S.
Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Upon closing of the
recapitalization plan, the credit extended to AIG by the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York under the revolving credit facility (AIG loan), including accrued
interest and fees, was repaid in full. The AIG loan is reported in the "Credit
extended to American International Group, Inc., net" category of total and
other borrowings from the Federal Reserve, which is shown in table 1a of the
H.3 statistical release.

The average value of "Credit extended to American International Group, Inc.,
net" for the two-week period ending January 26, 2011, reflects the closing of
the AIG recapitalization plan. The average value for the two-week period
ending January 26, 2011, is greater than zero because the AIG loan was repaid
in full on January 14, the second day of this two-week period. Table 1a will
continue to show historical values for "Credit extended to American
International Group, Inc., net" to provide a complete disaggregation of total
and other borrowings from the Federal Reserve for past periods.

Users will now be able to create and view interactive graphics of data packages from the program before downloading the underlying data and charts. The charting feature allows users to view multiple data series on a single chart as well as to display individual data points. The charts can be saved as PDFs or in a standard image file format (PNG) for publication and redistribution.

"Graphics play an important role in identifying data trends and relationships," said Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen. "With the help of this intuitive new user interface, it's now possible to create customized charts directly from Federal Reserve statistical data."

The H.3 statistical release indicates that nonborrowed reserves of depository institutions were negative for much of 2008 but more recently have turned positive.

By definition, nonborrowed reserves are equal to total reserves minus borrowed reserves. Borrowed reserves are equal to the sum of credit extended through the Federal Reserve's regular discount window programs and credit extended through certain Federal Reserve liquidity facilities. Total borrowings from the Federal Reserve are presented in table 1a of the release. Over much of 2008, in order to maintain a level of total reserves consistent with the Federal Open Market Committee's objective for the federal funds rate, increases in borrowed reserves were offset through a nearly commensurate decrease in nonborrowed reserves, which was accomplished through a reduction in the Federal Reserve's holdings of securities and other assets. The negative level of nonborrowed reserves was an arithmetic result of the fact that borrowings from the Federal Reserve liquidity facilities were larger than total reserves.

More recently, nonborrowed reserves have again turned positive. This development is purely an arithmetic result, in this case of the fact that a large volume of reserves has recently been provided through channels that, for purposes of the Federal Reserve's statistical releases, are not considered borrowings. These channels include foreign currency swap arrangements with foreign central banks and certain special purpose vehicles. Credit extended to these special purpose vehicles are not shown on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. Rather, as noted on the H.4.1 statistical release, the assets of these vehicles are consolidated onto the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, and consequently credit extended to these special purpose entities is not treated as a borrowing for purposes of the H.3 statistical release.

The H.3 statistical release indicates that nonborrowed reserves of depository institutions have declined substantially since mid-December to a level that is now negative. This development reflects the provision of a large volume of reserves through the Term Auction Facility (TAF) and has no adverse implications for the availability of reserves to the banking system.

By definition, nonborrowed reserves are equal to total reserves minus borrowed reserves. Borrowed reserves are equal to credit extended through the Federal Reserve's regular discount window programs as well as credit extended through the TAF. To maintain a level of total reserves consistent with the Federal Open Market Committee's target federal funds rate, increases in borrowed reserves must generally be met by a commensurate decrease in nonborrowed reserves, which is accomplished through a reduction in the Federal Reserve's holdings of securities and other assets. The negative level of nonborrowed reserves is an arithmetic result of the fact that TAF borrowings are larger than total reserves.

The DDP values for 09/5/07 and 09/12/07 for Total borrowings of Depository Institutions from the Federal Reserve (RESBR14A_N.WW) have been updated to reflect the correct values as posted on the H.3 release and H.3 Weekly Historical Aggregate Table 6: Memorandum Items dated 09/13/2007.

Annual Seasonal Factor Review

The Federal Reserve Board announces that data from the Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and the Monetary Base release (H.3) are now available for customizeable download through the Data Download Program (DDP). These data will updated weekly with the H.3 release on Thursday afternoon after 4:30 p.m.