va., september 18 – 19, and seung jung lee, lucy qian liu, and viktors stebunovs ( 2014 ), “ risk - taking and interest rates : evidence from decades in the global syndicated loan market, ” unpublished paper, board of governors of the federal reserve system. see jerome h. powell ( 2013 ), “ advanced economy monetary policy and emerging market economies, ” speech delivered at the federal reserve bank of san francisco 2013 asia economic policy conference, san francisco, november 4. see shaghil ahmed and andrei zlate ( 2013 ), “ capital flows to emerging market economies : a brave new world? “ international finance discussion papers 1081 ( washington : board of governors of the federal reserve system, june ) ; david bowman, juan m. londono, and horacio sapriza ( 2014 ), “ u. s. unconventional monetary policy and transmission to emerging market economies, ” international finance discussion papers 1109 ( washington : board of governors of the federal reserve system, june ) ; and marcel fratzscher, marco lo duca, and roland straub ( 2013 ), “ on the international spillovers of u. s. quantitative easing ( pdf ), ” ecb working paper series 1557 ( frankfurt, germany : european central bank, june ). bis central bankers ’ speeches ex post, these portfolio reallocations delivered a higher return to u. s. investors on this part of their portfolio relative to what they would have received if they had left portfolio compositions unchanged at the average shares in 2008 and 2009, but at a cost to the portfolio ’ s credit quality ( figure 6 ). regression results confirm that in choosing among foreign government bonds, u. s. investors have put more weight on returns since the crisis. 6 but search for higher returns has not been the only motivation for international investors post - crisis : demand for liquid high - grade “ safe ” or money - like assets has also increased from foreign official investors for investment of foreign exchange reserves, from pension funds and other institutions who face portfolio allocation constraints or regulatory requirements, and from investment strategies requiring cash - like assets for margining and other collateral purposes. some shift to safe assets is also seen in u. s. portfolios : u. s. investors actively rebalanced their holdings of foreign financial sector bonds toward those with higher credit ratings, but at some cost in returns ( figure 7 ; figure 8 ). 7 taken together, developments in u

1. 2 trillion level of reserve balances in 2025. responses to the survey are available on the federal reserve bank of new york's website at www. newyorkfed. org / medialibrary / media / markets / survey / 2019 / jun - 2019 - spd - results. pdf. 4 against a backdrop of declining reserves and high levels of treasury securities outstanding, in mid - september 2019, imbalances in the supply of and demand for short - term funding led to pressures in the repurchase agreement ( repo ) market. in response to elevated rates, the federal reserve began conducting repo operations to help stabilize money markets and provide reserves to keep the federal funds rate within its target range. these operations boosted reserves to levels averaging about $ 1. 6 trillion in early 2020. for a detailed discussion of the pressures in money markets and the fed's response, see sriya anbil, alyssa anderson, and zeynep senyuz ( 2020 ), " what happened in money markets in september 2019? " feds notes ( washington : board of governors of the federal reserve system, february 27 ). 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches