华盛顿——美联储(Federal Reserve)周一报告称，2020年该机构盈利886亿美元，并向联邦政府偿还了869亿美元，这是四年来美联储向政府支付的最大一笔款项。

美联储表示，去年其收益增长了331亿美元，这一增长反映了利率的下降，这意味着美联储要求商业银行保留的银行准备金利息支付减少。

向美国财政部支付的869亿美元，比美联储2019年支付的549亿美元增加了58.3%。这是自2016年美联储向财政部支付915亿美元以来的最大金额。

然而，围绕这一增长的情况有所不同。2016年，美联储拥有相当大的资产负债表，其中包括大量增加持有的美国国债和抵押贷款支持证券，这些证券正获得丰厚的回报。

去年春天，美联储开始每月增加1200亿美元的资产负债表，以帮助支撑经济冠状病毒流行病。但这一次，利率远低于2008年金融危机后的水平。

这些较低的利率意味着美联储这次没有看到其证券持有收益的大幅增加。相反，其证券持有的利息收入总额为1012亿美元，尽管持有规模较大，但与上年相比减少了16亿美元。

然而，美联储全年的收益确实有所增加，因为它必须向银行支付的准备金利息降至79亿美元，比去年减少了271亿美元。

美联储经审计的财务报告与1月份发布的初步报告仅略有不同，该报告显示，美联储向财政部支付了885亿美元，略低于869亿美元的最终支付额。

在2020年3月大流行爆发时，金融体系面临严重压力，美联储创建了许多支持计划来支撑金融体系。经审计的财务报表显示，只有主街贷款项目遭受了预计总额为24亿美元的损失。

然而，根据国会制定的紧急救援计划，如果这一损失得以实现，将由财政部提供的资金弥补。.

Fed pays US Treasury $86.9 billion, largest sum in 4 years

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve reported Monday that it earned $88.6 billion in 2020 and paid back to the federal government $86.9 billion, the largest Fed payment to the government in four years.

The Fed said that its earnings were up $33.1 billion last year, a gain that reflected falling interest rates which meant the central bank paid commercial banks less in interest payments on bank reserves that the Fed requires them to keep.

The $86.9 billion in payments to the U.S. Treasury was a 58.3% increase from the Fed's payment of $54.9 billion in 2019. It was the largest amount since the Fed paid the Treasury $91.5 billion in 2016.

However, the circumstances surrounding the increase are different. In 2016, the Fed had a sizable balance sheet containing large increases in its holdings of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities for which is was earning hefty returns.

The Fed began increasing its balance sheet last spring by $120 billion per month to help support the economy during thecoronaviruspandemic. But this time, interest rates are much lower than they were following the 2008 financial crisis.

Those lower interest rates mean the Fed did not see the sizable earnings increase from its securities holdings this time around. Instead interest income on its securities holdings totaled $101.2 billion, a decrease of $1.6 billion from the previous year despite the bigger size of the holdings.

However, the Fed's earnings for the full year did increase because the amount it had to pay to banks in interest payments on their reserves fell to $7.9 billion, a decrease in Fed payments of $27.1 billion from the previous year.

The Fed's audited financial report differed only slightly from a preliminary report released in January which showed the Fed paid the Treasury $88.5 billion, slightly smaller than the final accounting of a payment of $86.9 billion.

The Fed created a number of support programs to prop up the financial system after it came under severe stress when the pandemic hit in March 2020. The audited financial statement showed that only the Main Street lending program suffered a loss which was projected to total $2.4 billion.

However, under the emergency relief programs established by Congress, that loss, if it is realized, would be covered by funds supplied by the Treasury Department.