. the desk tends to avoid conducting operations on days that coincide with fomc announcements and on days that are known to have lighter liquidity conditions. the desk has begun publishing additional information from its operations, including information about the prices paid for each security, on a monthly basis. in addition, under the dodd – frank wall street reform and consumer protection act, the federal reserve will publish additional information about its open market operations, including the individual securities purchased, the transaction prices and the counterparty, with a two - year lag for all transactions subsequent to the legislation. implementing the program over an eight - month period would not be expected to significantly reduce the speed or magnitude of its effects on financial conditions and, ultimately, on the real economy under the view that the program ’ s effects arise from the expected stock of our holdings rather than the flow of our purchases. under this view, financial conditions react immediately to the announcement of the program, bringing forward its effects on financial conditions. this view provides policymakers with some flexibility regarding the amount of time to implement the total amount of purchases. bis central bankers ’ speeches the flexibility of this procedure can be seen in the patterns of our purchases over time. earlier in the program, we ended up purchasing a large concentration of off - the - run securities, including bonds that were issued 15 to 25 years ago. given their age, these bonds are generally less liquid and less valuable to market participants, and hence dealers were willing to sell them to us at cheaper prices relative to other securities. at more recent operations, however, we have received a greater share of offers to sell more recently issued treasury securities, including on - the - run issues, and our purchases have shifted accordingly. this suggests that older, off - the - run securities may have become harder for dealers to obtain, and that they have increasingly found it appealing to offer more recent issues, which are available in greater supply and are generally more liquid. our procedure allows this shift to take place, as long as the more recent issues are offered to us on generally favorable terms. overall, the desk has endeavored to implement the fomc ’ s policy decisions in a manner that ensures competitive and appropriate prices for the securities obtained and that maintains the efficient functioning of financial markets. i believe that we have managed to accomplish these objectives with our operations to date. market developments during the purchase programs of course, the operational objectives discussed above do not speak to the broader policy objectives of the asset purchase programs. the policy

brian p sack : implementing the federal reserve ’ s asset purchase program remarks by mr brian p sack, executive vice president of the federal reserve bank of new york, at the global interdependence center central banking series event, philadelphia, 9 february 2011. * * * it is a pleasure to be back in my hometown of philadelphia and to be invited to speak tonight at this event hosted by the global interdependence center ( gic ) and the federal reserve bank of philadelphia. the gic has an impressive history of promoting public dialogue about monetary policy and other topics, and it is a privilege to be able to participate in that process. tonight i will focus my comments on the implementation of the recent monetary policy decisions of the federal reserve and the associated implications for its balance sheet. as always, the views i will express are my own and do not represent those of the federal open market committee ( fomc ) or the federal reserve system. unconventional policy decisions in the second half of 2010, the fomc made two important policy decisions about the size and composition of the federal reserve ’ s balance sheet. in august, it decided to begin reinvesting the principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and mortgage - backed securities into longer - term treasury securities, thereby keeping the amount of domestic assets held in the system open market account ( soma ) portfolio unchanged at about $ 2 trillion. in november, the fomc announced that it intended to expand the soma portfolio by purchasing an additional $ 600 billion of longer - term treasury securities through the end of the second quarter of 2011, bringing the intended level of domestic securities holdings to $ 2. 6 trillion. those decisions were aimed at providing more monetary policy stimulus to the economy. the fomc saw the additional stimulus as warranted because it viewed the progress toward its mandated objectives of full employment and price stability as disappointingly slow. 1 in effect, the committee was using the size and composition of its balance sheet as a policy instrument, given that it had already employed its traditional means of easing monetary policy – decreasing short - term interest rates – to the fullest extent possible. federal reserve chairman bernanke has noted that the intention of asset purchases is similar to that associated with changes in short - term interest rates, in that they are meant to affect economic activity by influencing broader financial conditions. 2 but while the intention of the recent policy decisions may be similar to traditional monetary policy adjustments, the implementation of them is not.