Accessible Version
Bankers’ Banks and their Role in the Federal Funds Market, Accessible Data
Figure 1. Interbank Trading in the Federal Funds Market
This is a line chart titled “Interbank Trading in the Federal Funds Market”. The x axis ranges from 2015 to August 2025 in years. The y axis ranges from 0 to 10 in billions USD. The data is daily. There is 1 variable charted on the plot. The line is defined as the total fed funds volume between domestic bank borrowers and domestic bank lenders reported in the FR 2420 and included in the calculation of EFFR; labelled Fed Funds Interbank Volume; designated by a blue solid line; and ranges from 2 to 10 billion USD. This variable begins around 6 billion in 2015, is stable over 2016-2018 at 2-3 billion before rising over 2018-2020 to 6-8 billion, falling over 2020-2022 back to 2 billion, rising to 4-6 billion over 2022 before falling to 2 billion in 2023 and remaining stable thereafter.
Source: FR 2420.
Figure 2. Timing of Bankers’ Bank Loans
This is a bar chart titled “Timing of Bankers’ Bank Loans”. The x axis ranges from 8 to 21 in hours. The y axis ranges from 0 to 2000 in billions USD. The data is aggregate over the 2015-2025 time period and depicts the total volume of bankers’ banks’ fed funds loans made over the period at different times. There is 1 variable charted on the plot. The variable is designated by blue solid bars, and ranges from 0 to 2000. This variable is near 0 at 8, has most of its distribution between 10 and 12, with its peak at 11 of 2000, remains stable around 500 between 12 and 17, before decreasing to about 0. There is a vertical line before 11 labelled “FHLB Dallas Cutoff”, depicting the time after which FHLB Dallas imposes a higher rate on certain advances. Most of the distribution is after 11.
Source: Fedwire Funds Service.
Figure 3. Interbank Trading and Aggregate Trading in the Federal Funds Market
This is a line chart titled “Interbank Trading and Aggregate Trading in the Federal Funds Market”. The x axis ranges from 2015 to August 2025 in years. The y axis ranges from 0 to 150 billion USD. The data is daily. There are 2 variables charted on the plot. The first line is labelled Federal Funds Market Volume; is designated by a dashed black line; and ranges from 50 to 150 billion USD. This variable begins at 50 in 2015, increases to about 100 in 2018, decreases to about 60 in 2020, increases to about 150 in 2023, decreases to about 80 in 2025, and increases to about 100 in 2025. The second line is labelled “Federal Funds Interbank Volume”; is designated by a solid blue line; and ranges from 0 to 10. This variable begins in late 2015 (due to data availability) and is fairly stable throughout the time period. This chart shows that interbank fed funds volume is a very small proportion of total fed funds volume.
Source: FR 2420.
Figure 4. Rate Spreads to IORB
This is a line chart titled “Rate Spreads to IORB”. The X axis ranges from 2015 to August 2025 in years. The y axis ranges from -30 to 30 in basis point spread to IORB (Interest on Reserve Balances). The data is daily. There are 2 variables charted on the plot. The first line is labelled “Effective Federal Funds Rate (EFFR); is designated by a dashed black line; and ranges from -30 to 20 basis points. From 2015 to 2018, it is relatively stable below -10, dropping 5 basis points or more at the end of each month. From 2018 to September 2019, it increases to about 5 and spikes on one day to 20. From 2020 to 2022, it decreases to about -7 and remains constant until the end of the x-axis. The second line is labelled “Bankers’ Federal Funds Rate (BFFR)”; is designated by a solid blue line, and ranges between -10 and 25 basis points. This variable remains about constant at 0-5 basis points until 2018, increases to about 20 in 2019, decreases to -10 through 2021, increases to 25 from 2022 to 2023, decreases to 0-5 by 2024, and remains about constant thereafter. There are two vertical lines, depicting when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates above the zero lower bound (ZLB) in 2022, and when the BTFP (Bank Term Funding Program) was announced in 2023 after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. BFFR increased significantly after the liftoff from the ZLB, and only stopped after the introduction of the BTFP.
Source: FR 2420, Fedwire Funds Service.
Figure 5. Aggregate and Bankers’ Bank Reserve Balances
This is a line chart titled “Aggregate and Bankers’ Bank Reserve Balances”. The x axis ranges from 2015 to August 2025. The y axis ranges from 0 to 6 USD, in units that vary by the variable. The data is daily. There are 2 variables charted on the plot. The first line is labelled “Aggregate Reserves”; uses trillions USD as its unit; is designated by a dashed black line; and ranges from 2 to 4. This variable gradually decreases from about 2 and 3/4 in 2015 to 1 and 3/4 in 2020, increases to about 4 in 2021, decreases to about 3 in 2022 and remains about constant until the end of the period. The second line is labelled “Reserves held at Bankers’ Banks”; use tens of billions USD as its unit; is designated by a solid blue line; and ranges from 1 to 5. This variable remains about constant at 1.5 from 2015 to 2020, increases to 5 from 2020 to 2021, decreases sharply from 5 to 1.5 in 2022, and increases gradually to about 2.5 through the end of the x-axis.
Source: Internal Federal Reserve accounting records.
Figure 6. Equilibrium Rate Curve for Bankers’ Banks
This is a dot chart titled “Equilibrium Rate Curve for Bankers’ Banks”. The x axis ranges from .2 to 1 in percentage points. The y axis ranges from -30 to 30 in basis points. There is 1 variable charted on the plot. The variable depicts the relationship between the ratio of reserves held at bankers’ banks to assets held by small banks (x-axis) and the spread between BFFR (Bankers’ Federal Funds Rate) and IORB (Interest on Reserve Balances) (y-axis). Small banks are defined, following the definition listed in the H.8. release, as banks that are not in the largest 25 banks by assets. This variable forms a curve showing that BFFR prints at 25 basis points above IORB when the ratio of reserves to assets is at .25 percent, declines sharply to 0 as reserves rise to .3 percent of assets, remains mostly constant as reserves rise from .3 percent to .6 percent of assets and declines gradually to -10 as reserves rise from .6 percent to .85 percent of assets.
Source: H.8. release, Internal Federal Reserve accounting records, Fedwire Funds Service, FR 2420.
Figure 7. Aggregate Equilibrium Rate Curve
This is a dot chart titled “Aggregate Equilibrium Rate Curve”. The x axis ranges from 6 to 20 in percentage points. The y axis ranges from 30 to -30 in basis points. The variable depicts the relationship between the ratio of aggregate reserves to total banking assets (x-axis) and the spread between EFFR and IORB (y-axis). The variable forms a curve showing that EFFR can print 10 points above IORB as the ratio of reserves to assets falls below 8 percent. EFFR declines gradually to about -7 as the ratio rises to 13 percent and remains about constant thereafter.
Source: H.8., H.4.1 release, FR 2420.
Figure Appendix Document
This is a recent Federal Funds Agency Agreement Exhibit A from Bankers’ Bank of the West (BBW). BBW lists banks that BBW approved to purchase federal funds from its customers under its federal funds agency programs. The list includes a large number of domestic regional banks, as well as some GSIBs, BBW itself, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.