A road sign seen near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 7, 2025 in New York City, USA.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
New York Fed President John Williams last week met with Wall Street dealers about a major lending facility, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Fed’s annual financial markets conference on Wednesday and was attended by representatives from many of the 25 primary dealers of banks that underwrite government debt, according to the report. According to the report, participants in the meeting were members of a bank team specializing in the bond market.
CNBC confirmed that the meeting took place.
Williams asked these dealers for feedback on their use of the Fed’s Standing Repo Facility, a permanent lending tool that allows eligible financial institutions to borrow cash from the central bank in exchange for high-quality collateral such as Treasury bonds. The tool allows financial institutions to sell securities to the Fed with an agreement to buy them back later, essentially acting as a backstop for the market.
“Governor Williams has convened the New York Fed’s primary dealers to continue to engage with them about the purpose of the Standing Repo Facility as a monetary policy implementation tool and to seek feedback on maintaining the effectiveness of interest rate controls,” a New York Fed spokesperson told the Financial Times, which reported the news on Friday.
The meeting came amid growing concerns about signs of stress in parts of the U.S. financial system and tight market liquidity.
Roberto Perli, who manages the system open market accounts that hold the Fed’s bonds and cash, said on Wednesday that companies that need the central bank’s standing repurchase facility “should take advantage of it whenever it is economically prudent.”
The New York Fed did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Read the full Financial Times report here.
