How to Read the Fed's H.15 Selected Interest Rates — Fed Funds, Treasury Yields and Quoting Bases

As of 25 October 2026 (KST); latest release: Selected Interest Rates (H.15), posted by the Federal Reserve Board on October 23, 2026, with daily rates for October 16 to 22, 2026. The release states: "The release is posted daily Monday through Friday at 4:15pm. The release is not posted on holidays or in the event that the Board is closed." The next business day after October 23 is Monday, October 26, 2026 (this page's derivation from that rule). Primary source: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/^[1]

Comparison basis: daily rates in percent per annum, as published to two decimals and not rounded further here; changes are this page's calculations in percentage points. The daily release shows only five days, so year-ago values are not in it; weekly and monthly averages are, in the Fed's words, "The weekly and monthly averages are the average of all non-missing values during the given time period." The Treasury yields are compiled by the U.S. Treasury and published in the Fed's release; all three documents used are Federal Reserve Board publications and count as one issuer record.^[1][3]

In three lines

1. The H.15 lists daily rates for the federal funds market, commercial paper, the prime rate, the discount window and U.S. Treasury securities.
2. On October 22, 2026 the effective federal funds rate was 3.88% and the 10-year Treasury constant maturity yield 4.96%, down 0.17 percentage points in a day (calculated).
3. It is posted every business day at 4:15pm; the release dated October 23 carries data through October 22.^[1][2]

Effective federal funds rate. "As of March 1, 2016, the daily effective federal funds rate (EFFR) is a volume-weighted median of transaction-level data collected from depository institutions in the Report of Selected Money Market Rates (FR 2420)."^[1]

Prime and discount window. Prime: "Rate posted by a majority of top 25 (by assets in domestic offices) insured U.S.-chartered commercial banks. Prime is one of several base rates used by banks to price short-term business loans." Primary credit: "The rate charged for discounts made and advances extended under the Federal Reserve's primary credit discount window program, which became effective January 9, 2003." "The rate reported is that for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."^[1]

Treasury constant maturities. "Yields on actively traded non-inflation-indexed issues adjusted to constant maturities." "Yields on Treasury nominal securities at “constant maturity” are interpolated by the U.S. Treasury from the daily yield curve for non-inflation-indexed Treasury securities." The curve is "based on the closing market bid yields on actively traded Treasury securities in the over-the-counter market." "This method provides a yield for a 10-year maturity, for example, even if no outstanding security has exactly 10 years remaining to maturity."^[1]

Inflation-indexed yields. "Yields on Treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) adjusted to constant maturities. Source: U.S. Treasury."^[1]

Commercial paper. "Interest rates interpolated from data on certain commercial paper trades settled by The Depository Trust Company." Several commercial paper cells show n.a., which the table defines as "Not available."^[1]

Short vs long Treasury yields. On October 22 the 10-year yield (4.96%) was 0.31 percentage points above the 2-year (4.65%), against 0.32 the day before (this page's calculation).^[1]

Nominal vs inflation-indexed. The 10-year nominal yield (4.96%) less the 10-year TIPS yield (2.64%) is 2.32 percentage points on October 22, down from 2.37 (this page's calculation). The H.15 itself neither publishes nor interprets this difference.^[1]

Policy-linked rates vs market yields. The effective federal funds rate (3.88%), prime (7.00%) and primary credit (4.00%) were unchanged on all five dates shown in the October 23 release (October 16, 19, 20, 21 and 22, 2026), while Treasury yields moved; the 10-year fell 0.13 percentage points from October 16 to October 22 (this page's calculation).^[1]

20-year vs 30-year. On October 22 the 20-year constant maturity yield (5.32%) was 0.03 percentage points above the 30-year (5.29%) (this page's observation).^[1]

Two 3-month Treasury rates. The 3-month bill rate was 4.04% and the 3-month constant maturity yield 4.22% on October 22, a 0.18 percentage point gap (this page's calculation). They use different quoting bases and construction methods: the bill rate is quoted "On a discount basis." and "Annualized using a 360-day year or bank interest." while the constant maturity figure is a yield interpolated from the Treasury curve. The H.15 does not attribute the gap to a particular cause.^[1]

Daily vs weekly averages. For the federal funds and prime lines, "Weekly figures are averages of 7 calendar days ending on Wednesday of the current week; monthly figures include each calendar day in the month." Otherwise, "Weekly, monthly and annual rates are averages of business days unless otherwise noted."^[1][3]

Release date vs data date. The release dated October 23, 2026 shows columns from October 16 to October 22, 2026; its most recent column is October 22, the business day before the release date.^[1]

Discontinued series. "Historical rates that were previously on the H.15 release will continue to be available in the DDP, but they will no longer be updated."^[3]