This may tip a little too far on the arcane scale for many readers, but Craig Furfine has a nice article in the March edition of the Chicago Fed Letter on the aftermath of last year's change in how the Fed administers it's program for providing loans to banks. He explains:
On January 9, 2003, the Federal Reserve made two changes to the operation of the discount window, which allows banks to borrow from the Fed. These changes were aimed at providing banks with a less burdensome source of short-term funding...
The issue:
During the early 1990s, however, borrowing from the discount window fell significantly, averaging only $233 million, even though this was a period of banking system stress... this decline may have been due to banks refraining from requesting discount loans because of the perception that it would send a negative signal to the Federal Reserve, bank supervisors, and eventually the market at large. Even when banks’ financial conditions improved in the mid-1990s, banks remained reluctant to borrow from the Fed.
Thus:
Although the Fed has always offered a lending service, this recent change to discount window administration reflects, in part, an attempt to encourage commercial banks to use the Fed as a source of short-term funds.
So far, it hasn't happened.
Borrowing from the Federal Reserve’s discount window remains low.
If you teach money and banking, or are interested in a nice clean description of how direct lending by the Fed works, this article is for you.