Taxpayers received nearly $100 billion from the Federal Reserve in 2015, the central bank announced Friday.
The Fed said that it sent $97.7 billion to the Treasury in the year, out of net income of $100.2 billion.
The Fed also handed over $19.3 billion in December from reducing the surplus capital accounts of the Federal Reserve banks, a payment required by a controversial provision in legislation Congress passed in December to fund transportation spending.
The $97.7 billion sum sent from the Fed to the Treasury on its profits was up slightly from 2014, when it remitted $96.9 billion. The profits were earned on the Fed’s massive portfolio of bonds. The Fed’s $4.5 trillion holdings, are mostly in U.S. Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities backed by the government. That portfolio earned $113.6 billion in interest income in 2015, the Fed said.
The 12 regional banks that make up the Federal Reserve System had $3.9 billion in operating expenditures, according to the Fed’s report. The Board of Governors in Washington cost just over $700 to operate, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, housed within the Fed, accounted for another $490 million in operating costs.
The Fed’s annual income has grown significantly in recent years as it inflated its balance sheet in an effort to counteract the recession through repeated rounds of large-scale bond purchases.
The associated profits, which have benefited taxpayers, are expected to decline in coming years as the Fed moves to raise interest rates. Analysts expect that the Fed could experience accounting losses within several years as it follows its plans to normalize interest rates and ultimately shrink its balance sheet.
