By unanimous vote, the Authorization for Domestic Open Market Operations was approved with two amendments. The first broadened the actions that the Open Market Desk may take, at the Chairman's instruction during an intermeeting period, to include transactions to address temporary disruptions of an operational or highly unusual nature in U.S. dollar funding markets. For example, if secured funding rates were to increase to high levels in the wake of a natural disaster, the risk of a broader, more systemic disruption to the functioning of asset markets could result. In this case, the prospect that repurchase operations ... (full story)