Glossary · Money and central banks
Central bank balance sheet
A central bank’s balance sheet lists what it owns, mostly bonds, and what it owes, mostly the cash and bank reserves it has created.
Also called: Fed balance sheet, central bank assets, Fed total assets
November 4, 2026: about 20% of a year’s US GDP
November 6, 2026
In plain words
Every bank, company and family could write two lists: what we own, and what we owe. Put them side by side and you have a balance sheet. A central bank has one too, and it is unusual, because what a central bank owes is the country’s money.
On the owns side, the assets: mostly government bonds, plus loans to banks, gold and foreign currency. On the owes side, the liabilities: the banknotes in people’s pockets, the reserves banks keep in their accounts at the central bank, and the government’s own bank account.
When a central bank buys a bond, both sides grow at once: one more bond on the left, the same amount of new reserves on the right. That is how quantitative easing made balance sheets balloon. The Federal Reserve’s stood at $6.75T on November 4, 2026.
Example
Where your $100 bill sits
- You take $100 in cash from an ATM. Your bank hands over notes from its vault.
- To restock the vault, the bank orders new notes from the Fed, which takes $100 from the bank’s reserve account to pay for them.
- On the Fed’s balance sheet, reserves fall by $100 and currency in circulation rises by $100: the total stays the same.
- Now suppose the Fed buys a $100 bond instead: bonds +$100 on the asset side, reserves +$100 on the liability side. The balance sheet is $100 bigger.
Cash and reserves are both central bank money. Their total changes when the central bank buys, sells or lends.
One level deeper
For most of its history the Fed’s balance sheet grew slowly, in step with the cash people used: it was $910B in August 2008. Then came the financial crisis, emergency loans and three rounds of QE, then 2020. It peaked at $8.97T in April 2022.
A big balance sheet changes how a central bank steers rates. With trillions in reserves, adding or draining a few no longer moves the overnight rate, so central banks set it by paying interest on reserves. That interest is also why central banks can lose money: when rates jumped in 2022–2023, many paid more on reserves than they earned on old low-yield bonds. Losses do not make a central bank go broke, since its debts are its own money, but they stop its profits flowing to the government for a while.
Compare balance sheets with care: they are in different currencies, for economies of different sizes. The chart sets each one to 100 in January 2007 to show how many times it grew; measured against the economy, the Fed’s is about 20% of a year’s US GDP.
Four central banks’ balance sheets, January 2007 = 100
All four ballooned in 2020; the Fed and the Eurosystem had already grown in the 2008 crisis and the QE years of the 2010s. A line at 400 means a balance sheet four times as big as in January 2007, in its own currency; the falls after 2022 are quantitative tightening.
The numbers behind the chart
| Date | Federal Reserve | Eurosystem | Bank of Canada | Reserve Bank of Australia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2007 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Dec 2010 | 278 | 170 | 126 | 68 |
| Dec 2020 | 850 | 609 | 1,135 | 276 |
| Dec 2022 | 995 | 722 | 851 | 546 |
| Dec 2023 | 897 | 608 | 656 | 463 |
| Dec 2024 | 800 | 554 | 575 | 365 |
| Dec 2025 | 763 | 536 | 498 | 329 |
| Nov 2026 | 784 | 516 | — | — |
Why it matters
It shows how hard a central bank is propping up markets: a fast-growing balance sheet means it is buying bonds or lending heavily.
Its liabilities are the base of the money supply: every banknote and every dollar of bank reserves is on it.
Its size affects long-term interest rates, and so mortgage rates and bond prices, for years after the buying stops.
A common mistake
Myth: A central bank must keep enough gold to back the money it issues.
In fact: Not since the end of the gold standard. Gold is a small part of most central banks’ assets today. Money is backed by the bonds and loans on the balance sheet and, in the end, by trust in the central bank and the economy behind it; see fiat money.
Questions people ask
What is on the Fed’s balance sheet?
Assets: mostly US Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds, plus loans to banks. Liabilities: currency in circulation, banks’ reserve balances, the Treasury’s account and reverse repurchase agreements.
Why did central bank balance sheets grow so much?
After 2008 and again in 2020 central banks cut rates to near zero, then bought bonds on a huge scale and lent to banks to calm panics. The Fed’s grew from $910B in August 2008 to $8.97T at the peak in April 2022.
Can a central bank go bankrupt?
Not in its own currency: it can always pay what it owes by creating more of it. It can lose money and show negative capital, as several did after 2022, but the real risk of a careless central bank is inflation, not default.
Read more on BigCapital
About the numbers
- The numbers on this page are recalculated from the data every night; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
- Bank of Canada: total assets: Bank of Canada, Bank of Canada assets and liabilities: month-end (B1), series V36651 (Valet API).
- Eurosystem: total assets: European Central Bank, Eurosystem consolidated weekly financial statement, series ILM.W.U2.C.T000000.Z5.Z01 (ECB Data Portal).
- Federal Reserve: total assets: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, H.4.1 Factors Affecting Reserve Balances, series WALCL; retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
- Reserve Bank of Australia: total assets: Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table A1, Reserve Bank of Australia - Balance Sheet: total assets (ARBAATAW weekly, a1-data.csv; ARBAATA monthly, a01hist.xls).
- Gross domestic product (current dollars): U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, Table 1.1.5, series GDP; retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
- This page explains a term. It is not investment advice.