federal funds rate, interest rate used for overnight interbank lending in the United States. It is also the interest rate that is adjusted by the central bank of the United States—the Federal Reserve (“the Fed”)—to conduct monetary policy.
The amount of cash that a bank holds is called its reserves. The amount of reserves that a bank wants to hold may change as its deposits and transactions vary during day-to-day activities. When a bank needs additional reserves on a short-term basis, it can borrow from other banks that happen to be willing to lend them because they have more reserves than they need. The financial market in which interbank lending occurs in the United States is called the federal funds market, and the federal funds rate is the interest rate on the overnight borrowing of reserves in that market.
Just like any market interest rate, the federal funds rate may increase or decrease depending on the overall availability of reserves in the federal funds market. For example, if the demand for reserves in the market is greater than the supply of reserves, then the federal funds rate increases; if the supply is greater than the demand, the funds rate decreases. Therefore, the federal funds rate acts as a catalyst that brings the federal funds market to equilibrium, ensuring that supply satisfies demand at any point in time.
The Fed has the ability to influence the federal funds rate by changing the amount of reserves available in the funds market through open-market operations—namely, the buying or selling of government securities from the banks. If the Fed wants the federal funds rate to decrease, then it buys government securities from a group of banks. As a result, those banks end up holding fewer securities and more cash reserves, which they then lend out in the federal funds market to other banks. That increase in the supply of available reserves causes the federal funds rate to decrease. When the Fed wants to increase the federal funds rate, it does the reverse open-market operation of selling government securities to the banks.
The federal funds rate is the major tool that the Fed uses to conduct monetary policy in the United States. By changing the federal funds rate, the Fed can alter the cost of borrowing in the economy, which in turn affects the demand for goods and services in general. When the Fed predicts that the economy is moving toward a recession, it can boost economic activity in the short run by making borrowing less costly for the banks through a decrease in the federal funds rate. Banks can then use the reserves that they have obtained at lower rates to offer loans at lower interest rates to businesses and consumers. The cheaper credit in turn causes businesses and consumers to make more purchases, boosting sales and economic activity and putting the economy away from the recessionary trend. Conversely, the Fed may choose to increase the federal funds rate if it predicts that the economy is heating up too much and causing prices to rise too rapidly (inflation). Increasing the cost of credit through the funds rate curbs demand and helps reduce inflationary pressures in the short run.
The federal funds rate is one of the most closely watched economic indicators in the United States. and often receives extensive news coverage in the media, as it reveals the Fed’s monetary policy stance and the direction it wants to steer the U.S. economy. Domestic and international investors use it to gauge the future outlook of the U.S. economy and adjust their investment portfolios accordingly. As a result, changes in the federal funds rate often result in fluctuations in stock markets in the United States and abroad.
