Quarterly Report on Federal Reserve
Balance Sheet Developments

Overview

Recent Developments

The Overview section of this report highlights recent developments in the operations of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy tools and presents data describing changes in the assets, liabilities, and total capital of the Federal Reserve System as of December 31, 2013.

FOMC Slows Pace of Additional Asset Purchases

• On December 18, 2013, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced that in light of cumulative progress toward maximum employment and improvement in the outlook for labor market conditions, it would modestly slow the pace of its additional mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and longer-term Treasury securities purchases, and would likely further reduce the pace of asset purchases in measured steps if incoming information broadly supports its expectation of ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and inflation moving back toward its 2 percent longer-run objective. On January 29, 2014, and on March 19, 2014, the FOMC announced further measured reductions in the pace of asset purchases. Additional information is available at www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20131218a.htm, www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20140129a.htm, and www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20140319a.htm.

Federal Reserve Board Publishes Annual Financial Statements

• On March 14, 2014, the Federal Reserve System released the 2013 audited financial statements for the combined Federal Reserve Banks, the 12 individual Reserve Banks, the limited liability companies (LLCs) that were created by the Federal Reserve to respond to strains in financial markets, and the Board of Governors. Total Reserve Bank assets as of December 31, 2013, were $4.0 trillion, which is an increase of $1.1 trillion over the balance on December 31, 2012. The Federal Reserve Banks' 2013 earnings, inclusive of other comprehensive income, were $81.4 billion. The Reserve Banks provided for remittances to the U.S. Treasury of $79.6 billion. Interest income on securities acquired through open market operations--U.S. Treasury securities, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) debt securities, and federal agency and GSE MBS--totaled $90.4 billion, an increase of $9.9 billion over the previous year. There were no realized gains on the sales of U.S. Treasury securities in 2013, compared to $13.3 billion of gains in 2012 from the sales of short-term U.S. Treasury securities under the maturity extension program, which was completed in 2012. Earnings attributable to the consolidated variable interest entities (VIEs) were $181 million, $5.8 billion less than 2012. Interest expense on depository institutions' reserve balances during the year was $5.2 billion, losses from the daily revaluation of foreign currency denominated asset holdings were $1.3 billion, and Reserve Bank operating expenses were $6.1 billion, including assessments of $1.8 billion for Board expenses, currency costs, and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The Federal Reserve System financial statements are available on the Federal Reserve Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_fedfinancials.htm.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Extends Overnight Fixed-Rate Reverse Repurchase Agreement Exercise

• On January 29, 2014, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) announced that it had been authorized by the FOMC to continue conducting as an operational exercise the series of daily overnight reverse repurchase (reverse repo) transactions that began in September 2013. These operations may potentially extend through January 30, 2015, and are being conducted with all eligible counterparties using Treasury collateral under a fixed-rate format in which bids by participating institutions are awarded in full (up to a maximum bid amount) at a predetermined interest rate. These types of transactions are conducted as a matter of prudent advance planning by the Federal Reserve. They are intended to provide operational experience with larger transactional flows and additional information about how such operations might improve interest rate control regardless of the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. They do not represent a change in the stance of monetary policy, and no inference should be drawn about the timing of any change in the stance of monetary policy in the future. Additional details and the results of these operations are available on the FRBNY's website at www.newyorkfed.org/markets/op_policies.html  and www.newyorkfed.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm  .

Federal Reserve System Selected Assets, Liabilities, and Total Capital

Table 1 reports selected assets and liabilities and total capital of the Federal Reserve System and presents the change in these components over selected intervals. The Federal Reserve publishes its complete balance sheet each week in the H.4.1 statistical release, "Factors Affecting Reserve Balances of Depository Institutions and Consolidated Statement of Condition of Reserve Banks," available at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/.

Figure 1 displays the levels of selected Federal Reserve assets and liabilities, securities holdings, and credit extended through liquidity facilities since April 2010.

Table 1. Assets, liabilities, and capital of the Federal Reserve System
Billions of dollars

Item	Current February 26, 2014	Change from October 30, 2013	Change from February 27, 2013
Total assets	4,160	+317	+1,069
Selected assets
Securities held outright	3,900	+329	+1,061
U.S. Treasury securities 1	2,278	+161	+529
Federal agency debt securities1	51	-8	-22
Mortgage-backed securities 2	1,570	+176	+554
Memo: Overnight securities lending 3	11	-8	-9
Memo: Net commitments to purchase mortgage-backed securities 4	47	-25	-59
Unamortized premiums on securities held outright 5	209	+4	+25
Unamortized discounts on securities held outright5	-16	-7	-14
Lending to depository institutions 6	*	-*	-*
Central bank liquidity swaps 7	*	+*	-4
Lending through the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) 8	*	-*	-*
Net portfolio holdings of TALF LLC 9	*	-*	-*
Support for specific institutions 10	2	+*	+*
Net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane LLC10	2	+*	+*
Net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane II LLC10	*	-*	+*
Net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane III LLC10	*	-*	-*
Foreign currency denominated assets 11	24	-*	-*
Total liabilities	4,104	+316	+1,068
Selected liabilities
Federal Reserve notes in circulation	1,208	+32	+79
Reverse repurchase agreements 12	233	+118	+132
Foreign official and international accounts12	103	-6	+2
Others12	130	+125	+130
Term deposits held by depository institutions	0	0	0
Other deposits held by depository institutions	2,611	+176	+856
U.S. Treasury, general account	27	-3	+11
Other deposits 13	12	-3	-5
Total capital	56	+1	+1

 Note: Unaudited. Components may not sum to totals because of rounding.

 * Less than $500 million.

1. Face value. Return to table

2. Guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. The current face value shown is the remaining principal balance of the securities. Return to table

3. Securities loans under the overnight facility are off-balance-sheet transactions. These loans are shown here as a memo item to indicate the portion of securities held outright that have been lent through this program. Return to table

4. Current face value. Includes commitments associated with outright purchases, dollar rolls, and coupon swaps. Return to table

5. Reflects the premium or discount, which is the difference between the purchase price and the face value of the securities that has not been amortized. For U.S. Treasury and Federal agency debt securities, amortization is on a straight-line basis. For mortgage-backed securities, amortization is on an effective-interest basis. Return to table

6. Total of primary, secondary, and seasonal credit. Return to table

7. Dollar value of the foreign currency held under these agreements valued at the exchange rate to be used when the foreign currency is returned to the foreign central bank. Return to table

8. Book value. Return to table

9. As of February 26, 2014, TALF LLC had purchased no assets from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Return to table

10. Fair value, reflecting values as of December 31, 2013. Fair value reflects an estimate of the price that would be received upon selling an asset if the transaction were to be conducted in an orderly market on the measurement date. Fair values are updated quarterly. Return to table

11. Revalued daily at current foreign currency exchange rates. Return to table

12. Cash value of agreements, which are collateralized by U.S. Treasury securities, federal agency debt securities, and mortgage-backed securities. Return to table

13. Includes deposits held at the Reserve Banks by international and multilateral organizations, government-sponsored enterprises, and designated financial market utilities. Return to table

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