The federal funds rate is the interest rate banks charge on loans in the federal funds market. The federal funds rate is not set administratively by the Fed. Instead, the rate is determined by the supply of reserves relative to the demand for them.

The impact on the federal funds rate, by any policy, would depend on which policy is in question. Some policies will cause the federal funds rate to increase while other policies will cause the federal funds rate to decrease.

The Federal Funds rate abbriviated as Fed Funds is the overnight loan rate between banks. The Discount Window is the Federal Reseve Bank of New York's overnight interst rate charged to banks from the Federal Reserve, called the discount window rate.

The federal funds rate is the rate which banks charge one another for overnight loans used to provide needed capital to meet reserve requirements. The federal funds rate is the rate which the federal reserve may adjust thru open market operations such as the buying and selling of US treasuries. As of March 2010, the federal funds rate hovers between 0 and .25%.

If the Fed wants to raise the federal funds interest rate, it will sell securities to remove reserves from the banking system.