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This lecture handout is for Management of Financial Institution. It was provided by Prof. Yagna Rangnekar at Bundelkhand University. It includes: Policy, Instruments, Interest, Rates, Mechanism, , Central, Bank, Function, Marginal, Lending, Rate, Main, Refinancing
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Lecture # 4 POLICY INSTRUMENTS
The main monetary policy instruments available to central banks are open market operation, bank reserve requirement, interest-rate policy, re-lending and re-discount (including using the term repurchase market), and credit policy (often coordinated with trade policy). While capital adequacy is important, it is defined and regulated by the Bank for International Settlements, and central banks in practice generally do not apply stricter rules.
To enable open market operations, a central bank must hold foreign exchange reserves (usually in the form of government bonds) and official gold reserves. It will often have some influence over any official or mandated exchange rates: Some exchange rates are managed, some are market based (free float) and many are somewhere in between ("managed float" or "dirty float").
Interest Rates
By far the most visible and obvious power of many modern central banks is to influence market interest rates; contrary to popular belief, they rarely "set" rates to a fixed number. Although the mechanism differs from country to country, most use a similar mechanism based on a central bank's ability to create as much fiat money as required.
The mechanism to move the market towards a 'target rate' (whichever specific rate is used) is generally to lend money or borrow money in theoretically unlimited quantities, until the targeted market rate is sufficiently close to the target. Central banks may do so by lending money to and borrowing money from (taking deposits from) a limited number of qualified banks, or by purchasing and selling bonds. As an example of how this functions, the Bank of Canada sets a target overnight rate, and a band of plus or minus 0.25%. Qualified banks borrow from each other within this band, but never above or below, because the central bank will always lend to them at the top of the band, and take deposits at the bottom of the band; in principle, the capacity to borrow and lend at the extremes of the band are unlimited. Other central banks use similar mechanisms.
It is also notable that the target rates are generally short-term rates. The actual rate that borrowers and lenders receive on the market will depend on (perceived) credit risk, maturity and other factors. For example, a central bank might set a target rate for overnight lending of 4.5%, but rates for (equivalent risk) five-year bonds might be 5%, 4.75%, or, in cases of inverted yield curves, even below the short-term rate. Many central banks have one primary "headline" rate that is quoted as the "Central bank rate." In practice, they will have other tools and rates that are used, but only one that is rigorously targeted and enforced.
"The rate at which the central bank lends money can indeed be chosen at will by the central bank; this is the rate that makes the financial headlines." - Henry C.K. Liu , in an Asia Times article explaining modern central bank function in detail He explains further that "the US central-bank lending rate is known as the Fed funds rate. The Fed sets a target for the Fed funds rate, which its Open Market Committee tries to match by lending or borrowing in the money market.... a fiat money system set by command of the central bank. The Fed is the head of the central-bank snake because the US dollar is the key reserve currency for international trade. The global money market is a US dollar market. All other currencies markets revolve around the US dollar market." Accordingly the US situation isn't typical of central banks in general.
A typical central bank has several interest rates or monetary policy tools it can set to influence markets.
Marginal Lending Rate (currently 5.00% in the Euro zone) a fixed rate for institutions to borrow money from the CB. (In the US this is called the Discount rate). Main Refinancing Rate (4.00% in the Euro zone) this is the publicly visible interest rate the central bank announces. It is also known as Minimum Bid Rate and serves as a bidding floor for refinancing loans. (In the US this is called the Federal funds rate). Deposit Rate (3.00% in the Euro zone) the rate parties receive for deposits at the CB. These rates directly affect the rates in the money market, the market for short term loans.
Open Market Operations
Through open market operations, a central bank influences the money supply in an economy directly. Each time it buys securities, exchanging money for the security, it raises the money supply. Conversely, selling of securities lowers the money supply. Buying of securities thus amounts to printing new money while lowering supply of the specific security.
The main open market operations are:
Temporary lending of money for collateral securities ("Reverse Operations" or "repurchase operations" , otherwise known as the "repo" market). These operations are carried out on a regular basis, where fixed maturity loans (of 1 week and 1 month for the ECB) are auctioned off. Buying or selling securities ("Direct Operations") on ad-hoc basis. Foreign exchange operations such as forex swaps.
All of these interventions can also influence the foreign exchange market and thus the exchange rate. For example the People's Bank of China and the Bank of Japan have on occasion bought several hundred billions of U.S. Treasuries, presumably in order to stop the decline of the U.S. dollar versus the Renminbi and the Yen.
Capital Requirements
All banks are required to hold a certain percentage of their assets as capital, a rate which may be established by the central bank or the banking supervisor. For international banks, including the 55 member central banks of the Bank for International Settlements, the threshold is 8% (see the Basel Capital Accords) of risk-adjusted assets, whereby certain assets (such as government bonds) are considered to have lower risk and are either partially or fully excluded from total assets for the purposes of calculating capital adequacy. Partly due to concerns about asset inflation and term repurchase agreements, capital requirements may be considered more effective than deposit/reserve requirements in preventing indefinite lending: when at the threshold, a bank cannot extend another loan without acquiring further capital on its balance sheet.
In this method, money supply is increased by the central bank when the central bank purchases the foreign currency by issuing (selling) the local currency. The central bank may subsequently reduce the money supply by various means, including selling bonds or foreign exchange interventions.