Fed revises ABCP numbers

The Federal Reserve has revised its historical ABCP volume numbers back to May 2000 to adjust for previously unaccounted for programs that caused a near $30 billion spike when added in late April.

In a footnote, the Fed states: “Asset-backed commercial paper outstanding level series has been revised to reflect the inclusion of existing but previously unrecorded programs. The revisions affect outstandings from May 2000 to March 2003. Note that all series for which asset-backed outstandings are a subset will be affected by this revision.”

With these revisions, it appears that ABCP volume has been, for the most part, steadily increasing through May — ending the month up $13 billion to $737 billion. However, the month-end April figure, which had seemingly spiked more than $23 billion pre Fed-revision, actually declined about $4 billion, by these new figures.