Most importantly, the Fed retains the power to extend discount window loans to insured depository institutions – including commercial banks, thrift institutions, credit unions, or U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. Such loans can be to individual institutions facing funding pressures, or they can be to banks more generally to address broader financial stresses.
Due to the valuation at market prices, the share of gold within the Bundesbank’s reserves has increased significantly during recent years. The composition of the reserve assets is less the result of a portfolio optimisation strategy than, first and foremost, a response to gold transfers under the Bretton Woods System and to foreign exchange interventions prior to the launch of European monetary union.