Banks renew appetite to tap Fed's emergency loans

By Yasin Ebrahm

Investing.com -- Bank borrowing from the Federal Reserve’s discount window and new lending program ticked up last week, pointing to lingering liquidity constraints.

In the week ended Apr. 19, banks borrowed an average of $69.93 billion each night, down from $67.6B from a week earlier, according to new Fed data released Thursday.

Borrowing from the Fed’s Bank Term Funding Program, the new emergency lending program launched following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank – climbed to $73.98B from $73.49B in the prior week.

The uptick in borrowing pushed borrowings from the Fed’s emerging lending programs to $143.9B from $139.5B last week.

The renewed appetite to tap the central bank’s lending program comes as Federal Reserve officials continued to talk up further rate hikes despite conceding that tighter lending standards could help the central bank in its fight against inflation.

Tighter access to credit "would work in the same direction as tighter monetary policy,” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said Thursday. “So we will need to continue to assess the magnitude and duration of these effects on credit conditions to help us calibrate the appropriate path of monetary policy going forward. This is the prudent thing to do.”

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