Fed Reverse Repo Facility Use Jumps to Record $2.55 Trillion (1)

The amount of money that investors are parking at a major Federal Reserve facility climbed to an all-time high on the final trading day of the year as funds sought out places to stash short-term cash.

Some 113 participants on Friday put a total of $2.554 trillion at the Fed’s overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility, in which counterparties like money-market funds can place cash with the central bank. That was $245 billion more than the day before, the biggest one-day increase ever.

At the end of a year, “banks cut down on the size of their balance sheets and turn ...