These innovations and the development of concurrent financial technology such as derivatives and securitization, which enable the unbundling and repackaging of risks, have greatly expanded the range of tradable risks. As a result, market transactions have become deeper and more liquid, fairer and more competitive prices have been realized, and transaction costs have declined substantially.
17 The median assessment of the longer-run neutral federal funds rate declined from 4.25 percent in 2012 to 2.90 percent in September of this year, with 60 basis points of that shift occurring just since September 2015 (figure 5).