Fed Ends Limits On Savings Withdrawals, Transfers

The Federal Reserve Board has eliminated its six-per-month limit on transfers and withdrawals from savings accounts as the nation continues to adapt to changes caused by COVID-19.

“The interim final rule allows depository institutions immediately to suspend enforcement of the six transfer limit and to allow their customers to make an unlimited number of convenient transfers and withdrawals from their savings deposits at a time when financial events associated with the coronavirus pandemic have made such access more urgent,” the Fed said on Friday (April 24).

Such a rule is no longer necessary, the Fed said.

Last month, the regulatory agency dropped the primary credit rate by 150 basis points to 0.25 percent to make more credit available amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

“This reduction in the primary credit rate reflects both the 100-basis-point reduction in the target range for the federal funds rate and a 50-basis-point narrowing in the primary credit rate relative to the top of the target range,” the Fed’s release said. 

Its “full range of tools” is expected to help households and businesses stay on top of employment and price stability targets.

Earlier this month, former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke told a Brookings Institution online event that the U.S. economy could shrink 30 percent or more in the second quarter as the public heeds stay-at-home orders to slow the coronavirus outbreak. It could take a few years before the economy regains its footing, he said.

“Overall, it could be a very bad year for the economy,” Bernanke said. “There are things we can do to open up the economy, significantly perhaps, but I don’t see the economy returning to a more normal state until there’s much greater confidence … that opening up the economy won’t restart the crisis.”