Question

The manager of the bank where you work tells you that the bank has $300 million in deposits and $255 million dollars in loans. If the reserve requirement is 8.5 percent, how much is the bank holding in excess reserves?

Answer 1

The bank is holding $19.5 million in excess reserves.

Step-by-step explanation:

If the bank has $300 million is deposits and the reserve ratio is 8.5% then the bank needs to have minimum reserves of 8.5% of 300 million so the minimum reserves are 0.085*300 million = 25.5 million

How ever the actual reserves of the bank is the difference between deposits and loans. The deposits are 300 million and loans are 255 million so the actual reserves are 300 million-255 million= $45 million

Excess reserves is the difference between the actual reserves and the minimum reserves so 45 million - 25.5 million = 19.5 million.