This post describes the nitty gritty of what happens when the Fed purchases Treasuries. I will go into detail on the balance sheet implications for each participant, which will vary depending on whether the market participant is a bank or a non-bank. The bank/non-bank distinction matters because non-banks do not have Fed accounts and thus cannot hold reserves.
The Fed only does QE trades through Primary Dealers, who generally are not banks (they are broker-dealers) and do not have Fed accounts. (The exception is few U.S. branches of foreign banks who house their broker-dealer business in the bank entity, which do have reserve accounts). In practice, Primary Dealers tend to bank with custodian banks like Bank of New York Mellon, who specialize in collateral management services.
But the focus should not be the primary dealers as they are merely conduits. The newly created reserves ultimately end up in the account of whoever sold the Primary Dealer the Treasuries. If the seller is a Bank, then it will end up in the Bank’s Fed account. If the seller is a non-bank, it will end up in the Fed account of the bank that the Non-Bank banks with. The bank’s new reserve asset will be balanced against new bank deposit liabilities owed to the Non-Bank.
Below I walk through four scenarios of QE sales: Non-Bank Investor to Non-Bank Primary Dealer, Bank Investors to Bank Primary Dealer, Bank Investor to Non-Bank Primary Dealer, and Non-Bank Investor to Bank Primary Dealer. This should offer insight into the plumbing of QE.
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