Effective March 23, 2020, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) directed the Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to increase the System Open Market Account (SOMA) holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities in the amounts needed to support smooth market functioning. The FOMC directed the Desk to include purchases of agency commercial mortgage-backed securities (agency CMBS) in such purchases. The Desk will conduct its first purchase of agency CMBS on Friday March 27, 2020 with a deadline to submit offers to its investment manager at 11:00 am ET. In this operation, the Desk ... (full story)