Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee
The policy actions of the Federal Open Market Committee, recorded in the minutes of its meetings, are presented in the Annual Report of the Board of Governors pursuant to the requirements of section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act. That section provides that the Board shall keep a complete record of the actions taken by the Board and by the Federal Open Market Committee on all questions of policy relating to open market operations, that it shall record therein the votes taken in connection with the determination of open market policies and the reasons underlying each policy action, and that it shall include in its annual report to Congress a full account of such actions.
The minutes of the meetings contain the votes on the policy decisions made at those meetings, as well as a summary of the information and discussions that led to the decisions. In addition, four times a year, a Summary of Economic Projections is published as an addendum to the minutes. The descriptions of economic and financial conditions in the minutes and the Summary of Economic Projections are based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time of the meetings.
Members of the Committee voting for a particular action may differ among themselves as to the reasons for their votes; in such cases, the range of their views is noted in the minutes. When members dissent from a decision, they are identified in the minutes and a summary of the reasons for their dissent is provided.
Policy directives of the Federal Open Market Committee are issued to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as the Bank selected by the Committee to execute transactions for the System Open Market Account. In the area of domestic open market operations, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York operates under instructions from the Federal Open Market Committee that take the form of an Authorization for Domestic Open Market Operations and a Domestic Policy Directive. (A new Domestic Policy Directive is adopted at each regularly scheduled meeting.) In the foreign currency area, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York operates under an Authorization for Foreign Currency Operations and a Foreign Currency Directive. Changes in the instruments during the year are reported in the minutes for the individual meetings.1
Meeting Minutes
- Meeting Held on January 29-30, 2019
- Meeting Held on March 19-20, 2019
- Meeting Held on April 30-May 1, 2019
- Meeting Held on June 18-19, 2019
- Meeting Held on July 30-31, 2019
- Meeting Held on September 17-18, 2019
- Meeting Held on October 29-30, 2019
- Meeting Held on December 10-11, 2019
1. As of January 1, 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was operating under the Domestic Policy Directive approved at the December 18–19, 2018, Committee meeting. The other policy instruments (the Authorization for Domestic Open Market Operations, the Authorization for Foreign Currency Operations, and the Foreign Currency Directive) in effect as of January 1, 2019, were approved at the January 30–31, 2018, meeting. Return to text