Fed emergency loans to banks decline

Published January 28, 2010 10:20PM (EST)

Banks borrowed less from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program over the past week, another sign that strains on private credit markets are easing.

Commercial banks averaged $14.86 billion in daily borrowing for the week that ended Wednesday, the Fed reported. That was down from $15.1 billion in average borrowing for the previous week.

Banks have been scaling back their use of the Fed's emergency discount loan window as the financial crisis has eased. At the peak of the crisis, which struck with force in the fall of 2008, banks' daily borrowing from the discount window reached $110 billion as banks found their normal sources of credit frozen.


By Martin Crutsinger

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Bank Bailouts Business Federal Reserve U.s. Economy