Federal Reserve restarts ‘Not QE’ operations after one week

The Federal Reserve has resumed its reserve management purchases of short-term Treasury securities, restarting the program after a brief one-week pause. The operations, which market participants have affectionately dubbed “Not QE,” involve buying Treasury bills and short-maturity securities to keep the banking system’s plumbing running smoothly. What the Fed is actually doing The reserve management purchases, or RMPs, kicked off shortly after the Fed officially ended its quantitative tightening program on December 1, 2025. The New York Fed’s Open Market Trading Desk executes these operations, focusing exclusively on Treasury securities with remaining maturities of three years or less. The initial pace of purchases reached as high as $40 billion per month in Treasury bills during the early months of the program. More recently, the Fed conducted approximately $10 billion in RMPs during the July 14 to August 13 window, alongside reinvestments of existing securities. For the subsequent period running from August 14 to September 14, the Fed has planned zero new RMPs, opting instead to continue reinvestments totaling about $17 billion. Why ‘Not QE’ matters Traditional quantitative easing...