The main interest rate that the Federal Reserve tries to control is the Federal Funds rate, the interest rate that banks charge on short-term (usually overnight) loans to other banks. Let’s see how much interest a bank can earn if it lends money at the Federal Funds rate.
Virginia Community Bank has $2,000,000 of extra cash sitting in its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. It gets a call from Bank of America asking to borrow the whole $2,000,000 for 24 hours. (This is typical: It’s usually the smaller banks lending money overnight to the bigger banks.)
a. If the annual interest rate on federal funds is 4%, what (approximately) is the one-day interest rate on federal funds?
One day interest rate:______%
How many dollars of interest will Virginia Community Bank earn for lending this money for one day?
Interest earned on one-day loan: $_____
If Virginia Community Bank lent this amount every day at the same rate for an entire year, how much interest would it earn?
Interest earned on one-year loan: $_____
To convert annual interest rate to a daily interest rate based on simple interest, we simply divide the annual interest rate by 365, the number of days in a year.
a. If the annual interest rate on federal funds is 4%,
The one day interest rate = 4/365 = 0.0109589%
Interest earned on one-day loan of $2,000,000 = 0.0109589/100×2,000,000 = $219.178
If Virginia Community Bank lent this amount every day at the same rate for an entire year,
Interest earned on one-year loan = 219.178×365 =$80,000
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