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Rates & Fed · October 24, 2026 · 2 min read

Fed H.4.1: reserve balances averaged $2.963 trillion in October 21 week

By Econ Data Tools Editorial Team

Published October 24, 2026 • Updated October 24, 2026

Reviewed by Instinct source QC

Reserve balances at Federal Reserve Banks averaged $2.963 trillion in the week ended October 21, down $59.5 billion from the previous week. Securities held outright averaged $6.471 trillion, up $492 million, the October 22 H.4.1 release shows.

Reserve balances held at Federal Reserve Banks averaged $2,962,607 million in the week ended October 21, 2026, according to the Federal Reserve's October 22 H.4.1 release. That is about $2.963 trillion, down $59,533 million from the preceding week and up $29,570 million from the comparable week a year earlier. Those are weekly averages of daily figures, not the Wednesday closing snapshot. The same table reports Wednesday, October 21 reserve balances of $2,969,522 million. Keeping the two measures separate matters when comparing releases or tracking short-term changes. Securities held outright averaged $6,470,860 million during the week, up $492 million from the previous weekly average. Within that total, Treasury securities averaged $4,571,248 million, up $1,337 million, while mortgage-backed securities averaged $1,897,265 million, down $845 million. All figures are reported in millions of dollars in the source table. The weekly-average Treasury General Account was $952,002 million, up $68,629 million. H.4.1 lists the Treasury account among factors absorbing reserve funds. The table records several simultaneous changes; it does not establish that a single item fully explains the reserve-balance movement. The release does not support the incoming draft's claim that the Fed is currently running a $60 billion monthly balance-sheet runoff program. The Fed's July 2026 Monetary Policy Report says runoff ended on December 1, 2025 and describes reserve-management purchases intended to maintain ample reserves. A weekly fall in reserve balances alone is not evidence that quantitative tightening restarted. Sources: Federal Reserve H.4.1, October 22, 2026, and the July 2026 Monetary Policy Report. These are balance-sheet observations and policy context, not a forecast of interest rates or market liquidity stress.

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