NPR.

It's been 110 years since the birth of the Federal Reserve, but even after all those

years, it is still out here inventing new things.

Keeping us all young.

Yes, the fountain of youth.

After the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, the Fed created a new bandaid for banks.

It's called the Bank Term Funding Program.

The Bank Term Funding Program is this new way for banks to borrow from the Fed.

And it's extraordinary because compared to the usual way the Fed helps out troubled

banks, it is much more generous.

And it exposes the government to more risk.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Darian Woods.

And I'm Mary Childs.

Today on the show, the Bank Term Funding Program.

What it is, how it works, and how taxpayers might now be on the hook for banks' bad investments.

The Fed is the bank for banks.

That's why it was set up.

And it's why it will lend to banks in a panic when nobody else will.

There is one way that it usually does this.

It's called the Discount Window.

That's the Fed's normal bandaid for when banks start bleeding.

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