this design worked incredibly well, as activity in most of the facilities gradually declined to near zero, allowing the fed to simply turn them off with no market disruption. the success of these facilities should be judged by the outcomes they produced for financial market functioning, and not by the financial returns they generated on the federal reserve ’ s books. however, there are several reasons why the fed might be expected to profit from this type of lending under most circumstances. first, the fed is providing funds in response to an extreme move in the price of liquidity – that is, it is in effect buying a cheap asset. second, the programs themselves, if successful at returning market functioning, would help the performance of the fed ’ s loans to be sound. and third, the lending under these facilities has to be adequately secured. asset holdings : a policy lever while the exit from the liquidity facilities has been successful, the exit from the accommodative stance of monetary policy involves a different set of challenges. many of these challenges arise from the federal reserve ’ s outright holdings of treasury debt, agency debt and agency mortgage - backed securities ( mbs ), which together represent the overwhelming share of the fed ’ s balance sheet today. indeed, as a result of our large - scale asset purchase programs, these asset holdings now account for $ 2. 0 trillion of the fed ’ s $ 2. 3 trillion balance sheet. the federal reserve is approaching the scheduled end of its large - scale asset purchases. we have bought $ 169 billion of agency debt to date, nearly fulfilling our plan to purchase “ about $ 175 billion ”. for mbs, we have only about $ 30 billion of purchases remaining to reach our $ 1. 25 trillion target. in addition, we completed $ 300 billion of purchases of treasury securities late last year. looking across these programs, we have now purchased $ 1. 69 trillion of assets, bringing us 98 percent of the way through our scheduled purchases. to get to this point, the trading desk at the new york fed has so far conducted 126 discrete operations to purchase treasury and agency debt, and has managed 292 trading days on which either it or its investment managers have acquired mbs. my view is that the purchase programs have helped to hold down longer - term interest rates, thereby supporting economic activity. with the conclusion of the programs approaching, the desk has been tapering the pace of its purchases of agency debt and mbs. however, even as the pace of our purchases has

premia from agents ’ expectations continues to be a top priority in the research agendas of central banks. for example, we constantly monitor inflation swaps and other inflation - linked instruments to check the anchoring of expectations to the ecb ’ s medium - term target. 21 but the prices of these instruments are significantly affected by timevarying risk premia, which need to be accurately estimated in order to draw policy conclusions. this kind of exercise is more important than ever in the current environment of elevated inflation pressures. i am confident that this workshop will yield new insights on several topics that are highly relevant for investments and for policy - making. i want to thank lti, the organizers, the keynote speaker, the panelists, presenters, discussants, and all of you in advance. i wish you a pleasant and constructive day of discussion. notes 1. ignazio visco ( 2021 ) “ the g20 presidency programme on sustainable finance ”. remarks by ignazio visco governor of the bank of italy, omfif sustainable policy institute symposium webinar, 30 september 2021. 2. during the italian presidency, the imf and the interagency group on economic and financial statistics were asked to consider climate - related data needs in preparing a new data gap initiative. the financial stability board was requested to make recommendations on how to improve climate - related financial risk disclosures and close data gaps. the g20 sustainable finance study group ( g20 sustainable finance working group, 2021 synthesis report ), co - chaired by china and the us, was re - established. the study group quickly gathered inputs provided by international organizations and delivered a synthesis report, which proposes a set of recommendations to make progress in three main areas : 1 ) improving the comparability and interoperability of approaches to align investments to sustainability goals ; 2 ) overcoming information challenges by improving sustainability reporting and disclosure ; 3 ) enhancing the role of international financial institutions in supporting the goals of the paris agreement. 3. our work covers the sustainability - related aspects of monetary policy, supervision, regulation, financial stability, financial education, market operations and payment systems. we also actively contribute to the analysis of these issues ongoing at the european and international level. 4. for a broader perspective see ignazio visco, op. cit. ; luigi federico signorini ( 2022 ), “ sustainable investment choices : emergencies and transition ”, speech by luigi federico signorini senior deputy governor of the bank of italy,