Directors at three of the Federal Reserve’s 12 regional branches voted to hold the discount rate unchanged ahead of the central bank’s meeting last month.
(Bloomberg) — Directors at three of the Federal Reserve’s 12 regional branches voted to hold the discount rate unchanged ahead of the central bank’s meeting last month.
Minutes of discount rate meetings between Nov. 14 and Dec. 14 released Tuesday by the Fed showed directors at Dallas, Richmond and Atlanta voted to hold the rate, which governs direct lending to banks at the Fed’s discount window, at 4%. Directors at the remaining nine regional branches backed a 50 basis point hike.
Discount rate preferences are non-binding on the Fed Board but can sometimes be used as signaling mechanisms for the policy preferences of individual regional Fed presidents.
The Dallas, Atlanta and Richmond Fed chiefs did not vote on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee last year.
Fed policymakers voted Dec. 14 to raise the benchmark federal funds rate by 50 basis points to a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%. The discount rate was raised by the same amount to 4.5%.
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