Federal Reserve Bank of New York: “On September 13, 2012, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) directed the Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to begin purchasing additional agency MBS at a pace of $40 billion per month. The FOMC also directed the Desk to maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from the Federal Reserve’s holdings of agency debt and agency MBS in agency MBS. The FOMC noted that these actions should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative.”