It plans to pump up to a trillion dollars a week into the financial system. The aim is to ensure there is sufficient liquidity for banks so they can continue lending to businesses suffering from a collapse in economic activity as the US tries to limit the outbreak and respond to the oil price war.

The Fed is also resuming quantitative easing - buying up billions of dollars’ worth of bonds - which should help areas of the market where liquidity had tightened recently. The move comes little more than a week after the Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points, which failed to stabilise markets.

Whether this massive liquidity injection can calm market fears remains to be seen, but it is certainly a powerful statement of intent. A decade on from the GFC, the Fed is dusting off the crisis playbook, meaning ultra-low interest rates and asset purchases will be with us for a long time yet.

Tim Foster

Tim Foster

Portfolio Manager