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               Researh Sevice





Federal Reserve: Emergency Lending in

Response to COVID-19



Updated June 15, 2020
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created significant economic and financial disruptions. In
response, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has taken a number of actions to promote economic and financial
stability. This Insight covers actions taken by the Fed in its lender of last resort role-actions intended
to provide liquidity directly to firms to ensure they have continued access to needed funding. The Fed
finances this assistance by expanding its balance sheet. For more detail, see CRS Report R46411, The
Federal Reserve's Response to CO VID-19: Policy Issues, by Marc Labonte. For information on
regulatory changes made by the Fed, see CRS Insight IN 11278, Bank and Credit Union Regulators'
Response to COVID-19, byAndrew P. Scott and David W. Perkins.

Discount Window
In a March 15 announcement, the Fed encouraged insured depository institutions (e.g., banks) to borrow
from the Fed's discount window to meet their liquidity needs. This is the Fed's traditional tool in its
lender of last resort function. Discount window lending is negligible in normal conditions but has surged
since March. The Fed also encouraged banks to use intraday credit available through the Fed's payment
systems as a source of liquidity.

Emergency Credit Facilities
In 2008, the Fed created a series of emergency credit facilities to support liquidity in the nonbank
financial system. This extended the Fed's traditional role as lender of last resort from the banking system
to the overall financial system for the first time since the Great Depression. To create these facilities, the
Fed relied on its emergency lending authority (Section 13(3) of the Federal ReserveAct). This authority,
amended by the Dodd-FrankAct (P.L. 111-203), places a number of restrictions on the Fed, including that
the facilities can operate only in unusual and exigent circumstances.
Emergency authority was not used again until 2020. To date, the Fed has created nine emergency
facilities-some new, and some reviving 2008 facilities-in response to COVID-19:



                                                               Congressional Research Service
                                                                 https://crsreports.congress.gov
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