The US central bank will keep calculating reserve requirements, even though they are zero

The US central bank is updating the numbers it uses to calculate how much cash banks must keep in reserve. These updates are required by law, even though banks currently do not have to keep any cash in reserve.

In 2020, the US central bank set bank reserve requirements to zero. This meant banks no longer had to hold a certain amount of cash against their deposits. This rule shows that the central bank is still following the legal process for calculating these requirements, even if the actual requirement is zero. It keeps the machinery in place, ready to be reactivated.