To access this liquidity, institutions can pledge a range of easily priced securities as collateral. The events in August placed strong upward pressure on the overnight interest rate, moving it above our target. And so we carried out open-market buyback operations to inject liquidity, with the goal of bringing the actual overnight rate closer to our target.
We also temporarily expanded the list of securities that market participants could use as collateral in these buyback operations. In addition, we provided liquidity by increasing our supply of settlement balances as we normally do when we see an increased demand for cash balances. All told, our actions were effective in helping to improve the functioning of the overnight money market.