By Michael S. Derby NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal Reserve lending to financial institutions eased modestly in the latest week, central bank data showed on Thursday, in a sign that financial sector woes that began last month may be beginning to settle down. Total lending to the three main programs aimed at bolstering bank liquidity stood at $323.3 billion as of Wednesday, down from $332.7 billion on March 29. At the start of March, before banking sector problems emerged, total Fed liquidity...

(Adds details and context on Fed lending) By Michael S. Derby NEW YORK, April 6 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve lending to financial institutions eased modestly in the latest week, central bank data showed on Thursday, in a sign that financial sector woes that began last month may be beginning to settle down. Total lending to the three main programs aimed at bolstering bank liquidity stood at $323.3 billion as of Wednesday, down from $332.7 billion on March 29. At the start of March, before...

Analysts say that if TNB won approval to offer deposit accounts to clients and other banks copied its model, the development could pose a threat to how the Fed has controlled short-term rates since the 2008 crisis. Instead of targeting a specific short-term rate, as it did before the financial meltdown, the Fed now sets a firm range between the rate it will pay deposit-taking banks at the high end, and the overnight reverse repurchase rate that is available to an approved roster of money...

William McDonough, who led the Federal Reserve Bank of New York through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their aftermath, died Monday. Mr. McDonough, 83 years old, died at his home in Waccabuc, N.Y., the New York Fed said Thursday. The bank didn’t give a cause of death. Mr. McDonough led the bank, which serves as the U.S. central bank’s main point of contact with Wall Street, from 1993 to 2003. His tenure was in some ways a test run for broader challenges his central-bank successors...