Fed to Offer $60B in Auctions

The Federal Reserve has upped the amount of liquidity it will inject into the banking system this month in two auctions through a new facility it launched in December.

The Fed will offer $30 billion each in 28-day auctions planned for Jan. 14 and 28. The central bank offered a total of $40 billion in two December auctions through its Term Auction Facility, launched earlier in the month to address a tight lending environment between banks.

Last month's auctions were met with strong demand from banks. The Fed intends to hold biweekly auctions through the facility "as long as necessary to address elevated pressures in short-term funding markets," the Fed reiterated in a statement.

The central bank will announce decisions regarding auctions in February by the start of the month.

The Fed made the announcement after Vice Chairman Donald Kohn spoke at an economic conference in New Orleans Friday morning.

In his prepared remarks to the Allied Social Science Association's annual meeting, Kohn gave no indications of the Fed's intent to cut the federal funds rate at its next meeting scheduled for Jan. 30.

His remarks were limited to the makeup and leadership of the Fed's Open Markets Committee, a response to a paper about insiders vs. outsiders on the monetary policy committees of central banks.