Associated Press | A new document shows three of the Federal
Reserve’s 12 regional banks made a push last month to bump up the
interest rate banks pay the Fed for emergency loans.

The regional banks were in Kansas City, St. Louis and Dallas. They
wanted to boost the discount rate to 1 percent from 0.75 percent. The
rate doesn’t directly affect borrowing costs for Americans.

Late last month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his four other board members unanimously decided to keep the current rate.

In mid-February, the Fed raised the rate by one-quarter point, to 0.75 percent, a move to bring policy closer to normal after the financial crisis.