Search Results
Speech
The Economy’s Outlook, Challenges, and Way Forward
Recent economic data have been encouraging, but President Rosengren believes the most difficult part of the recovery is still ahead of us. A full recovery probably requires the availability of vaccines and more effective treatments for the virus because until then, many businesses and households are unlikely to return to more normal spending habits. While he anticipates a slowly improving economy, economic activity still faces serious headwinds. Potential financial impediments and challenges in the labor market make the recovery process more gradual than any of us would prefer. Improvement in ...
Journal Article
The Main Street Lending Program
The Main Street Lending Program was created to support credit to small and medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations that were harmed by the pandemic, particularly those that were unsupported by other pandemic-response programs. It was the most direct involvement in the business loan market by the Federal Reserve since the 1930s and 1940s. Main Street operated by buying 95 percent participations in standardized loans from lenders (mostly banks) and sharing the credit risk with them. It would end up supporting loans to more than 2,400 borrowers and co-borrowers across the United ...
Working Paper
Motivating Banks to Lend? Credit Spillover Effects of the Main Street Lending Program
We study the effects of the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP)—an emergency lending program aimed at supporting the flow of credit to small and mid-sized firms during the COVID-19 crisis on bank lending to businesses. Using instrumental variables for identification and multiple loan-level and survey data sources, we document that the MSLP increased banks' willingness to lend more generally outside the program to both large and small firms. Following the introduction of the program, participating banks were more likely to renew maturing loans and to originate new loans, as well as less ...
Speech
The Economy’s Outlook, Challenges, and Way Forward
President Rosengren’s comments were delivered at the Massachusetts Bankers Association’s New England Conference, and were based on a speech he delivered on September 23, 2020 to the Boston Economic Club.
Speech
Implementing the Fed’s Facilities: Moving at Maximum Speed with Maximum Care
Remarks before the Money Marketeers of New York University (delivered via audio webinar).
Report
A Helping Hand to Main Street Where and When It Was Needed
This paper investigates the lending activity of the Main Street Lending Program, which the Federal Reserve established at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. Main Street was the largest (by total principal outstanding) of the Federal Reserve's emergency credit and liquidity facilities. The authors find fairly robust evidence that Main Street accomplished its key goal of directing more funds where and when they were most needed. Businesses located in states with more severe declines in commercial activity (as proxied by mobility indicators) and higher infection rates obtained a ...
Report
How Did the MSLP Borrowers Fare Before and During COVID-19?
This policy brief uses Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) data to assess whether the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP) borrowers were in worse financial health than their peers before COVID-19 hit the economy hard in March 2020 or suffered worse deterioration afterward. The findings can help us better understand why these firms sought to obtain MSLP loans. We find that MSLP borrowers tend to be larger than their peer firms (that is, firms in the same industry and state). Within the same size group, MSLP borrowers are on average younger than their peers. Borrowers tended to have a slightly higher ...
Speech
Prepared Testimony for the Congressional Oversight Commission
President Rosengren spoke about the operationalization of the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program, a facility authorized by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, with approval of the Secretary of the Treasury. The Department of the Treasury committed to make an equity investment of $75 billion in the Program – and the funds available for investment by the Treasury were appropriated to the Exchange Stabilization Fund under section 4027 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”). ...
Speech
Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum Fed Week Financial Stability Session
Short-term credit markets have been disrupted in the past two recessions, and significant risks remain. For example, prime money market mutual funds and stablecoins bear attention. Substantial emergency actions were necessary to support lending during the pandemic, and the economy would benefit from being less dependent on ad hoc measures in crises. A properly implemented Countercyclical Capital Buffer, or CCyB, would help avoid some of these issues. Unfortunately, emergency facilities do well supporting large firms but are challenged somewhat to reach small firms. Without better facilities ...
Report
COVID Response: The Main Street Lending Program
The Main Street Lending Program was created to support credit to small and medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations that were harmed by the pandemic, particularly those that were unsupported by other pandemic-response programs. It was the most direct involvement in the business loan market by the Federal Reserve since the 1930s and 1940s. Main Street operated by buying 95 percent participations in standardized loans from lenders (mostly banks) and sharing the credit risk with them. It would end up supporting loans to more than 2,400 borrowers and co-borrowers across the United ...