The bank, the second-largest in the U.S. by assets, first tapped the TAF in May 2008, six months after the program debuted, and then zeroed out its borrowings in September 2008. The next month, it started using TAF again.
On Feb. 26, 2009, more than a year after TAF's creation, JPMorgan's borrowings under the program climbed to $48 billion. On that day, the overall TAF balance for all banks hit its peak, $493.2 billion. Two weeks later, the figure began declining.
"Our prior comment is accurate," said Howard Opinsky, a spokesman for JPMorgan.
'The Cheapest Source'
Herring, the University of Pennsylvania professor, said some banks may have used the program to maximize profits by borrowing "from the cheapest source, because this was supposed to be secret and never revealed."
Whether banks needed the Fed's money for survival or used it because it offered advantageous rates, the central bank's lender-of-last-resort role amounts to a free insurance policy for banks guaranteeing the arrival of funds in a disaster, Herring said.
An IMF report last October said regulators should consider charging banks for the right to access central bank funds.
"The extent of official intervention is clear evidence that systemic liquidity risks were under-recognized and mispriced by both the private and public sectors," the IMF said in a separate report in April.
Access to Fed backup support "leads you to subject yourself to greater risks," Herring said. "If it's not there, you're not going to take the risks that would put you in trouble and require you to have access to that kind of funding."