The two most noteworthy examples of this are the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, which was introduced in October 2008, and the Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility (announced in November 2008, but not up and running until last month.) Third, once policy rates were near the zero-bound, we expanded the type of assets that the Fed purchased. In order to put downward pressure on general longer term borrowing rates, particularly mortgage rates, the Federal Reserve has purchased the debt of the GSEs, namely, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the mortgage-backed-securities they issue, and, more recently, longer-term Treasuries. So why has the Fed done so much in terms of special programs? As I see it, there are four major reasons behind the dramatic expansion of the Fed’s liquidity programs: •  To provide liquidity to banks and dealers in order to slow down the deleveraging process. •  To expand the balance sheet capacity of the private sector to counteract the shrinkage underway in the non-bank financial sector. •  To restore and improve market function. •  To ease financial market conditions. This financial crisis has been marked by the rapid deleveraging of the non-bank financial sector. This deleveraging has been driven mainly by the collapse of securitization activity, pressure on dealers to reduce leverage and the spillover of these efforts on to other financial players such as hedge funds. This deleveraging process, in turn, has put intense pressure on the balance sheet capacity of the banking sector.
Not only can banks no longer securitize assets as before, but assets that they thought were off their books have come back on. BIS Review 48/2009  1  Although the deleveraging process is inevitable following periods when the financial system has become overextended, it does matter how this deleveraging process takes place. In the current crisis, the deleveraging process at times has been very violent and dangerous, with powerful reinforcing feedback loops intensifying the process. During these episodes, bystanders who did not engage in excess may be trampled and fail. This may exacerbate the tightening in financial conditions, intensifying the constraint on credit availability and the downward pressure on economic activity. For example, in March 2008, in the run-up to Bear Stearns’ demise, the deleveraging process intensified. Market volatility increased; this caused lenders to increase the haircuts they assessed against collateral to secure their lending. The higher haircuts, in turn, squeezed highly leveraged investors who were forced to sell assets. This drove down asset prices and increased price volatility further, leading to still-higher haircuts. This intensified the deleveraging process, which led to more mark-to-market losses. The Federal Reserve’s facilities for banks and dealers have been designed, in part, to slow down the deleveraging process. The TAF, the TSLF and the PDCF have provided assurance to banks and dealers that they have a place where they can obtain funding for their less liquid collateral.