With few firms advising life insurers, is financial stability at risk?
Despite asset managers playing an increasingly pivotal role in investment decisions—leading to more similar portfolios—analysis of life insurance firms and their advisers reveals a relatively small threat to financial stability.
August 19, 2025
Surveys
Banking Conditions Survey
Loan volume and demand increased in August. Loan volume was driven by a sharp acceleration in residential real estate loans, which had contracted in the prior period.
August 18, 2025
Research Department Working Papers
Dollar Funding Fragility and Non-U.S. Global Banks
Global non-U.S. banks have significant dollar exposure both on and off their balance sheet. This paper develops a model to analyze their adjustment to dollar funding shocks, whether from reduced direct lending or external dollar shortages.
August 12, 2025
How sensitive are interest rates to higher federal debt?
The U.S. faces a historically high federal debt-to-GDP ratio, a measure of debt relative to economic output. But how sensitive are interest rates to higher debt?
August 12, 2025
Low oil prices, local impact: Do depressed energy markets affect banks?
Oil prices have swung dramatically in recent years, shaped by geopolitical conflicts, evolving global demand and shifting energy policies.
August 07, 2025
Accounting for interest rate risk: Matching Fed assets to liabilities
In Depth: The Fed has floating-rate liabilities as well as long-lived, zero-interest liabilities. A barbell of floating-rate and long-duration assets would best offset the interest rate risk from these liabilities. Investing in a more diversified mix of durations, while matching the average duration of assets, could be more practical than the barbell approach but would leave a substantial portion of interest rate risk unhedged.
August 07, 2025
How do reciprocal deposit networks interact with deposit insurance?
Reciprocal deposit networks are designed to increase the total amount eligible for FDIC deposit insurance. In recent years, growth of the networks has accelerated, prompting a re-evaluation of the existing deposit insurance framework and raising at least three questions.
August 05, 2025
Research Department Working Papers
The Micro and Macro Dynamics of Capital Flows
This paper studies empirically and theoretically the effects of international financial flows on resource allocation.
August 01, 2025
Current Banking Risks
Commercial real estate, interest rates and cybersecurity are current risks for banks in the Eleventh District, per second quarter 2025 data.
August 01, 2025
How sensitive is the Treasury cash-futures basis trade to funding condition shifts?
In Depth: The Treasury cash-futures basis trade, a very large, leveraged Treasury trade, has drawn scrutiny because unwinding positions amplified stress during the pandemic-era market shock of March 2020. Although the trade has since become more prominent, recent market activity suggest that financial stability concerns have not simultaneously grown.
July 15, 2025