Sterilization

Intervention operations involving dollars affect the supply of Federal Reserve balances to U.S. depository institutions, unless the Federal Reserve offsets the effect. A purchase of foreign currency by the Federal Reserve increases the supply of balances when the Federal Reserve credits the account of the seller’s depository institution at the Federal Reserve. Conversely, a sale of foreign currency by the Federal Reserve decreases the supply of balances. The Federal Reserve offsets, or “sterilizes,” the effects of intervention on Federal Reserve balances through open market operations, otherwise, the intervention could cause the federal funds rate to move away from the target set by the FOMC.

For example, assume that the Federal Reserve, perhaps in conjunction with Japanese authorities, wants to counter downward pressure on the dollar’s foreign exchange value in relation to the Japanese yen. The Federal Reserve would sell some of its yen denominated securities for yen on the open market and then trade the yen for dollars in the foreign exchange market, thus reducing the supply of dollar balances at the Federal Reserve. In order to sterilize the effect of intervention on the supply of Federal Reserve balances, the Open Market Desk would then purchase an equal amount of U.S. Treasury securities in the open market (or arrange a repurchase agreement), thereby raising the supply of balances back to it’s former level. The net effect of such an intervention is a reduction in dollar denominated securities in the hands of the public and an increase in yen denominated securities. The operations have no net effect on the level of yen balances at the Bank of Japan or on the level of dollar balances at the Federal Reserve.

A dollar intervention initiated by a foreign central bank also leaves the supply of balances at the Federal Reserve unaffected, unless the central bank changes the amount it has on deposit at the Federal Reserve. If, for example, the foreign central bank purchases dollars in the foreign exchange market and places them in its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then the supply of Federal Reserve balances available to depository institutions decreases because the dollars are transferred from the bank of the seller of dollars to the foreign central bank’s account with the Federal Reserve. However, the Open Market Desk would offset this drain by buying a Treasury security or arranging a repurchase agreement to increase the supply of Federal Reserve balances to U.S. depository institutions. Most dollar purchases by foreign central banks are used to purchase dollar securities directly, and thus they do not need to be countered by U.S. open market operations to leave the supply of dollar balances at the Federal Reserve unchanged.

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