Segregated Balance Accounts

29 Pages Posted: 19 Aug 2016

See all articles by Rod Garratt

Rod Garratt

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) - Department of Economics

Antoine Martin

Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Research and Statistics

James McAndrews

Wharton Financial Institutions Center

Ed Nosal

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Date Written: 2015-05-01

Abstract

This paper describes segregated balance accounts (SBAs), a concept for a new type of account that could provide increased competition for deposits, reduce system-wide balance sheet costs, and improve the transmission of monetary policy by facilitating greater pass-through of interest on excess reserves (IOER). SBAs are designed to remove credit risk by creating narrow accounts that could allow any bank to compete for money market funds. Because of increased competition, the rates paid on borrowings secured by SBAs, along with other money market rates, would likely be pushed up closer to the IOER rate and would be more tightly linked to that rate. SBAs could promote a more efficient allocation of reserves within the banking sector by shifting reserves from banks with high balance sheet costs to banks with low balance sheet costs. SBAs would not require setting an additional administered rate; IOER would be paid on the balances held in an SBA and the rate paid on the loan secured by the balances in the SBA would be competitively determined. We discuss a number of potential risks that SBAs could pose as well as further steps that would be required before SBAs could be implemented.

Keywords: central bank, interest rate

JEL Classification: E40, E42, E50, E58

Suggested Citation

Garratt, Rod and Martin, Antoine and McAndrews, James and Nosal, Ed, Segregated Balance Accounts (2015-05-01). FRB of NY Staff Report No. 730, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2824369

Rod Garratt (Contact Author)

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) - Department of Economics ( email )

2127 North Hall
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
United States

Antoine Martin

Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Research and Statistics ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States
212-720-6943 (Phone)

James McAndrews

Wharton Financial Institutions Center ( email )

2306 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
9176090086 (Phone)
19104 (Fax)

Ed Nosal

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ( email )

1000 Peachtree Street N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309-4470
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
55
Abstract Views
679
Rank
670,520
PlumX Metrics