Federal Reserve’s balance sheet eases as bank emergency lending slows

The Federal Reserve’s emergency lending to banks appears to have slowed.

For the week ending March 30, the U.S. central bank’s balance sheet eased by nearly $30 billion to $8.706 trillion, down from $8.734 trillion.

In the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures, the Fed employed emergency lending tools, prompting the balance sheet to soar by approximately $300 billion in a single week.

The two main figures the public is monitoring are the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) and “other credit extensions,” which each rose by $62.645 billion and $180.1 billion, respectively, last week.

For the second consecutive week, the Fed’s Treasury securities holdings were relatively unchanged.