Scott Bessent champions Federal Reserve facility to support yen, and it’s really about protecting US bonds

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for an expansion of a little-known Federal Reserve facility that lets foreign central banks swap US Treasuries for dollars. The goal: give Japan a pressure valve for its collapsing currency without forcing Tokyo to sell American government bonds on the open market. The yen crisis and a coordinated intervention The Japanese yen has been sliding toward levels not seen in roughly 40 years, and Bessent himself has described it as “very undervalued.” In late July 2026, the US executed its first yen-buying intervention since 2011, coordinated directly with Japanese officials. The move reportedly involved the US Treasury purchasing Japanese yen through the New York Fed, selling euros in the process. A Bessent notepad photographed at Camp David on July 31 included a line item reading “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil.” What the FIMA facility actually does The Federal Reserve’s Foreign and International Monetary Authorities Repo Facility (FIMA) was born during the 2020 pandemic panic and made permanent in 2021. It lets foreign central banks temporarily hand their US Treasury holdings to the Fed and get dollars back. The facility typically allows u...