System Open Market Account

SOMA's primary purpose is to assist the New York Fed in carrying out open market operations (OMOs) and foreign exchange interventions (the U.S. Treasury, in consultation with the Federal Reserve System, is responsible for setting U.S. exchange rate policy). The U.S. monetary authorities—the Treasury and the Fed—may intervene in the foreign exchange market to counter disorderly market conditions, using funds that belong to the Federal Reserve and to the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) of the Treasury Department.

Following the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 leading to the Great Recession, the FOMC "increased the size and adjusted the composition of the SOMA portfolio in efforts to promote the Committee’s mandate to foster maximum employment and price stability".[2]

SOMA securities serve three purposes:[1]

• Collateral for U.S. currency in circulation and other reserve factors that show up as liabilities on the Fed's balance sheet
• A tool for the Fed's management of reserve balances
• A tool for achieving the Fed's macroeconomic objectives

The resulting investments are held in the SOMA portfolio. Interest on the portfolio provides virtually all of the Fed's income, but the central bank buys and sells securities purely to implement U.S. monetary policy and not for profit.

The SOMA consists of the Federal Reserve's domestic and foreign portfolios. As of the end of 2008, the domestic portfolio consisted of U.S. Treasury securities held $496 billion in securities outright and $80 billion in repurchase agreements (i.e., on a temporary basis). The SOMA foreign currency portfolio consisted of $25 billion denominated in euros and yen. Reciprocal currency arrangements with foreign institutions totaled $554 billion.[3]

Ownership of the SOMA and its income is allocated among the Reserve Banks during the system's annual settlement of balances. The settlement process makes use of the system's gold certificates that, despite the abandonment of the gold standard in the 20th century, still have a nominal role in backing US currency. Ownership of the foreign portfolio is determined first by allocating each Reserve Bank a share in proportion to its year-end capital and surplus. The change in its ownership from the previous allocation is offset with an adjustment to the Reserve Bank's clearing balance with the rest of the system. Next, each Reserve Bank calculates its average daily clearing balance during the past year. It adjusts its ownership of the gold certificates by that amount and makes an offsetting adjustment to its current clearing balance. Finally, each Reserve Bank adjusts its gold certificate ownership again so that the ratio of its ownership to its outstanding Federal Reserve Notes matches the systemwide ratio, and makes an offsetting adjustment to its ownership of the domestic portfolio. The resulting ownership percentages are then effective for the following year.[4]

The New York Fed has an open data web page that allows people to export historical data of SOMA holdings from 2003 to the present as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. SOMA holdings data is updated weekly.[1]