Federal banking regulators have advised US institutions to include the Federal Reserve’s discount window in their contingency funding plans.

The discount window is an important tool for managing liquidity risk, as highlighted by the March bank failures.

After the SVB and Signature Bank collapses, discount window borrowing reached a record $153 billion in March, forcing the Fed to establish a new emergency lending facility.

Fed emergency credit soared to almost $350 billion when FDIC-guaranteed loans were included.

Lending under the discount window has fallen to $2.25 billion, the lowest in over a year.