H3: Annual Review of Break and Seasonal Factors for Reserves and the Monetary Base

For release at 4:30 P.M. EDT October 27, 2011 SPECIAL NOTICE Data on reserves and the monetary base have been revised to reflect the result of annual reviews of seasonal factors and break factors. Revisions to seasonal factors start in January 1999, while revisions to break factors begin in January 2010. Break factors remove discontinuities (or "breaks") associated with regulatory changes in reserve requirements, such as the annual indexations of the low-reserve tranche and the reserve requirement exemption.1 The maximum revision to total reserves, nonborrowed reserves, required reserves, and the monetary base in any maintenance period was $2.0 billion; most revisions were less than $700 million. A more detailed description of the methods for constructing break factors and seasonal factors is available under "Annual review of break and seasonal factors" on the Federal Reserve's website (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/hist/). Historical data, updated each week, are available there as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. The Monetary Control Act of 1980 established a reserve ratio of 3 percent against the first $25 million in net transaction deposits (low-reserve tranche) at each depository institution. Since 1982, the low-reserve tranche has been indexed each January by 80 percent of the previous year's (June 30 to June 30) growth rate of net transaction deposits at all depository institutions. For all reserve maintenance periods ending in 2011, the low-reserve tranche is $58.8 million, rising to $71.0 million for maintenance periods ending in 2012. Under the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, the first $2 million of reservable liabilities of each depository institution was exempted from reserve requirements. Since 1983, this exemption amount has been indexed each year by 80 percent of the rate of increase of the reservable liabilities at all depository institutions over the preceding year (June 30 to June 30). For all reserve maintenance periods ending in 2011, the reserve requirement exemption is $10.7 million, rising to $11.5 million for maintenance periods ending in 2012.