employment report, which is another important metric at the state level. we have also constructed a consumer credit panel to track local household credit conditions at the county and even the zip code level, including the amount and type of personal debt and whether payments are being made in a timely way. in addition, we conduct a periodic poll about the credit needs of small businesses, which are an important source of new jobs. we are just launching our latest poll that also includes questions about the skill needs of small businesses and whether the right kinds of skilled labor are available. almost 900 regional businesses responded to our last poll, some of which were from this region. if you, as a representative of a small business, would like to participate in our current poll, please pass your card to my colleagues, who are in the audience, or see me after the speech and we will be glad to add you as a respondent. results from prior polls stressed the problem of access to capital. in response we held two workshops at the bank last december. in the first workshop, senior officers from the export - import bank, the small business administration and the department of commerce described the various loan programs available to small businesses from their agencies, as well as programs to help identify markets. the second workshop reviewed the business plans of 40 small businesses and then matched them with potential lenders. we plan to hold a similar workshop in upstate new york this year. as you know, even states that are wealthier, such as new york, have large pockets of poverty. so, we target some of our work specifically to low - and moderate - income groups. we have worked hard to help neighborhoods that face high foreclosure rates, although much remains to be done. we have provided housing advocates with the latest information on mortgage conditions, via mortgage briefs, roundtables, presentations and newsletters. we have now developed an interactive online tool that shows monthly delinquency and foreclosure conditions, which we believe will aid the work of housing counselors and other parties seeking to help these communities. it is available on our website along with other data and information useful to policymakers, business people and the general public. we use our website to share what we learn about our diverse district, and you will find detailed information about the region at the site. i invite you to visit newyorkfed. org to explore our highly localized maps and information on small business, credit and housing conditions and even the latest job openings at

the size of the reaction in repo rates, the spillover to unsecured markets such as federal funds, and the emergence of strains in market functioning were outside of recent experience. for example, in april and june of this year, sizable payment flows led to relatively muted movements in secured lending rates and small movements in unsecured rates. as had been done ahead of prior dates with anticipated significant funding pressures, on friday, september 13, the markets team at the new york fed, and others in the federal reserve system put in place a plan for increased monitoring of money markets. this included more frequent reporting on transactions, data, and information from market participants on monday. although conditions remained calm on that friday, the simultaneous increase and widening dispersion in repo rates and, importantly, federal funds rates on monday indicated that markets were not effectively distributing liquidity across the system. the new york fed ’ s markets team 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches built a timeline and implementation plan in case the open market desk at the new york fed ( desk ) would need to operate on tuesday. early tuesday morning, it became clear that this situation had persisted and had the potential to become more acute. in response to these developments, and in keeping with the fomc ’ s standing directive to the desk to conduct open market operations as necessary to keep the federal funds rate within the target range, on tuesday morning the desk announced and conducted a repo operation. although such operations were common before the financial crisis, this was the first non - test repo operation in many years. this was followed by repo operations each day since. these actions had the desired effect of reducing strains in markets, narrowing the dispersion of rates, and lowering secured and unsecured rates to more normal levels relative to other benchmarks. the experience of the past week drew attention to the possibility of the development of strains in funding markets around the upcoming end of the quarter. this past friday we announced a plan of continued daily overnight repo operations through october 10, accompanied by three twoweek term repo operations that span the month end. 1 the goal of these actions is the same as for recent open market operations : foster conditions in money markets to keep the federal funds rate within the target range. this episode reminds us all of the importance of having well - functioning markets and the vital role that the federal reserve plays in supplying liquidity to the system when markets are under stress. we were prepared for such an