Discount window
Mechanism for central bank lending to eligible depository institutions / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Discount window?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The discount window is an instrument of monetary policy (usually controlled by central banks) that allows eligible institutions to borrow money from the central bank, usually on a short-term basis, to meet temporary shortages of liquidity caused by internal or external disruptions.
The interest rate charged on such loans by a central bank is called the bank rate, discount rate, policy rate, base rate, or repo rate, and is separate and distinct from the prime rate. It is also not the same thing as the federal funds rate or its equivalents in other currencies, which determine the rate at which banks lend money to each other. In recent years, the discount rate has been approximately a percentage point above the federal funds rate (see Lombard credit). Because of this, it is a relatively unimportant factor in the control of the money supply and is only taken advantage of at large volume during emergencies.