The Federal Reserve paid a record $98.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury from its 2014 earnings, the central bank said Friday.
The Fed, a quasi-independent bank that conducts monetary policy on behalf of the U.S. government, distributes the earnings of its regional banks to the Treasury after paying expenses.
In 2014, the central bank had an estimated net income of $101.5 billion.
Most of that revenue came from interest on its massive book of U.S. Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, which totaled nearly $4.5 trillion by the end of 2014. In the wake of the financial crisis, the Fed engaged in several rounds of large-scale purchases of bonds in an effort to lift asset prices and provide stimulus to the struggling economy.
The Fed’s 12 regional banks also had $435 million of income from services and $101 million from the financial crisis-era bailout programs started by the Fed.
The $98.7 billion sent to the Treasury in 2014 exceeded the $79.6 billion paid in 2013 and the $88.4 billion paid in 2012. Annual payments were significantly lower before the expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet in 2008.
