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Permanent Open Market Operations

Purchases or sales of securities on an outright basis that add or drain reserves and change the size of the System Open Market Account (SOMA) portfolio are amongst the tools used by the Federal Reserve to implement monetary policy.

Treasury

Purchases or sales of Treasury securities on an outright basis have been used historically as a tool to manage the supply of bank reserves to maintain conditions in the market for reserves consistent with the federal funds target rate set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). On March 18, 2009, the FOMC announced a longer-dated Treasury purchase program with a different operating goal, to help improve conditions in private credit markets. Operations ›› Longer-dated Treasury Purchase Program FAQs ››

Agency

The current program to purchase direct obligations from housing-related GSEs is intended to reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit for the purchase of homes. Operations ›› FAQs ››

Agency MBS

The current program to purchase agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) is intended to provide support to mortgage lending and housing markets and to foster improved conditions in financial markets more generally. Agency MBS purchases are conducted by investment managers acting as agents for the SOMA. Operations ›› FAQs ››