Click for full interactive graphic.

 The level has climbed by more than $1 trillion over the course of 2013 as the central bank continued its bond-buying program launched in September 2012. The Fed announced Wednesday that it will continue buying bonds into next year, though it slowed the pace to $75 billion a month.

 The balance sheet is up from less than $1 trillion prior to the recession. During the downturn the Fed expanded its balance sheet through several programs aimed at keeping markets functioning. As markets stabilized the Fed shifted out of emergency programs and into purchases of U.S. Treasurys, mortgage-backed securities and agency debt securities to drive down interest rates and encourage more borrowing and growth in two separate rounds of what is known as quantitative easing. The most recent bond buying added $40 billion a month in MBS and another $45 billion in long-term Treasurys.

 Even as the Fed’s bond holdings have grown, other assets tied to emergency programs are disappearing. The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, ended in March 2010, and continues to fall due primarily to voluntary prepayments as the market improves and other financing options become more attractive. Direct-bank lending has fallen to the tens of millions of dollars. The Fed has sold off most of the assets related to the rescue of Bear Stearns and AIG and now just holds less than $2 billion.

 In an effort to track the Fed’s actions, Real Time Economics created an interactive graphic marking the expansion of the central bank’s balance sheet. The chart is updated as often as possible with the latest data released by the Fed.

 In an effort to simplify the composition of the balance sheet, some elements have been consolidated. Portfolios holding assets from the Bear Stearns and AIG rescues have been put into one category, as have facilities aimed at supporting commercial paper and money markets. The direct bank lending group includes term auction credit, as well as loans extended through the discount window and similar programs.

 Central bank liquidity swaps refer to Fed programs with foreign central banks that allow the institutions to lend out foreign currency to their local banks. Repurchase agreements were short-term temporary purchases of securities from banks, which were looking for liquidity and agree to repurchase them on a specified date at a specified price. That market has dried up in the postcrisis period.