The Federal Reserve will pay $76.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury as part of an annual dividend it remits after covering its own expenses from interest on its ballooning bond portfolio and other gains.
Total assets on the Fed’s balance sheet stood at a near-record $2.92 trillion on Jan. 4. The central bank expanded its portfolio by purchasing $2.3 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt, mortgage-backed securities and housing agency debt to push down longer-term interest rates once its benchmark lending rate hit zero in December 2008. The Fed expanded its portfolio in two rounds of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing.
