Is it fortunate that the FOMC meeting will resume as scheduled?”
FOMC Approved Liquidity Actions, but Not, so Far, a Rate Cut The Federal Open Market Committee met by conference call Monday to approve a new securities lending facility and the extension of swap lines to the European and Swiss central banks, a Fed spokeswoman said. The Fed said this morning it would lend up to $200 billion in Treasurys to bond dealers in return for collateral such as mortgage backed securities, and make a $30 billion swap line available to the European Central Bank and a $6 billion swap line to the Swiss National bank. The securities lending facility is designed to improve trading conditions in the MBS market. The ECB and SNB will use the swap lines to supply dollar loans to European based banks. The Fed meeting, held by videoconference, lasted an hour and a half, the spokeswoman said. She declined to say whether monetary policy more generally was discussed on the call. The FOMC has a regularly scheduled policy meeting next March 18. There has been speculation the Fed
