Federal Reserve Ends Quantitative Tightening After $3T+ Balance Sheet Reduction

The Federal Reserve formally ended its quantitative tightening (QT) program on December 1, 2025, as authorized at the October FOMC meeting. Since peak balance sheet of ~$9 trillion in 2022, the Fed had reduced holdings by over $3 trillion. The end of QT was accompanied by authorization for 'Reserve Management Purchases' to maintain an appropriate level of bank reserves — a move that some analysts characterized as stealth quantitative easing.