Simple English definitions for legal terms
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The federal-funds rate is the interest rate that banks charge each other when they lend money overnight. This happens when one bank has extra money and another bank needs some money to cover their expenses. The rate is set by the Federal Reserve and can affect how much it costs for people and businesses to borrow money from banks.
Definition: The federal-funds rate is the interest rate at which banks lend to each other overnight. This means that banks with excess reserves lend money to those with temporarily insufficient reserves. It is also known as the fed-funds rate and is often shortened to fed funds.
These examples illustrate how the federal-funds rate works. Banks with excess reserves can earn interest by lending to other banks with temporary shortages of reserves. The Federal Reserve can also use the federal-funds rate to influence the overall level of interest rates in the economy.