The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 15 and 16, 2026, at the Federal Reserve Board headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is the sixth of eight scheduled FOMC meetings in 2026 and one of the four each year that comes with updated economic projections from every participant.1Federal Reserve. Federal Open Market Committee – Meeting Calendars and Information
What Gets Released on September 16
The policy statement lands at exactly 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, September 16, 2026. That is the moment the new federal funds rate target range is confirmed, whether the committee moves it or holds it steady, and it is the timestamp markets react to.2Federal Reserve. April 28-29, 2026 FOMC Meeting
Thirty minutes later, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern, the Fed Chair holds a live press conference walking through the committee’s reasoning and taking reporter questions. Tone and word choice at the podium often move markets a second time because they hint at where policy is heading next. The Fed streams the session at federalreserve.gov/live-broadcast.htm, and major financial news networks carry it too.3Federal Reserve Board. Federal Reserve Board – Calendar
Why the September Meeting Carries Extra Weight
September is one of only four meetings a year that publishes the Summary of Economic Projections, the document commonly called the dot plot.1Federal Reserve. Federal Open Market Committee – Meeting Calendars and Information It comes out alongside the 2:00 p.m. statement and shows each participant’s individual forecast for the federal funds rate at the end of the current year, the next few years, and over the longer run. It also carries projections for GDP growth, unemployment, and inflation.
The dot plot draws outsized attention because it reveals where individual officials think rates are going, even when they did not vote for a change at that meeting. For reference, the March 2026 projections put the median longer-run federal funds rate at 3.1 percent, roughly where participants believe rates would settle in a shock-free economy.4Federal Reserve. Summary of Economic Projections The September update will show whether that view has shifted.
Detailed meeting minutes, which flesh out the debate and show which arguments carried, are released three weeks after the decision. For September 15–16, that puts the minutes around October 7, 2026.1Federal Reserve. Federal Open Market Committee – Meeting Calendars and Information
The Blackout Period Before the Meeting
In the days leading up to September 15, Fed officials stop talking about monetary policy. A formal communications blackout begins at midnight Eastern Time on Saturday, September 5, 2026, and runs until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, September 17, the day after the meeting ends. During that window, governors, Reserve Bank presidents, and senior staff cannot publicly discuss their views on monetary policy or the economic outlook.5Federal Reserve. FOMC Policy on External Communications of Federal Reserve System Staff
If you track Fed speeches to gauge where policy is heading, remarks made before September 5 are your last real signal. Any headline quoting a Fed official on monetary policy during the blackout window is worth reading with skepticism.
Reading the Odds Before Decision Day
You do not have to wait for September 16 to see where the odds sit. The CME Group’s FedWatch Tool converts pricing from federal funds futures into a real-time probability of a hike, cut, or hold at each upcoming meeting. It is free at cmegroup.com and updates as traders react to fresh economic data.6CME Group. FedWatch
As of early 2026, the federal funds rate target range sits at 3.50 to 3.75 percent. Whether the September meeting delivers a cut, a hold, or a hike will depend on where inflation, employment, and GDP land by the time the committee convenes. Watching FedWatch probabilities move in the weeks before the meeting is the closest thing to a live consensus forecast.
What the Decision Means for Your Money
The federal funds rate is what banks charge each other for overnight loans, so it does not directly set your mortgage or car loan rate. It still ripples through most borrowing and savings products, sometimes fast and sometimes with a lag.
Credit Cards
Credit card APRs react fastest. Most cards are tied to the prime rate, which moves with the federal funds rate. When the Fed raises or lowers, the prime rate adjusts within about a month and card APRs follow shortly after.7Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. How Interest Rate Changes Affect Credit Card Spending If you carry a balance, a hike shows up on your bill almost immediately.
Mortgages
Mortgage rates are a different animal. They track the 10-year Treasury yield more closely than the federal funds rate, and the two can move in opposite directions. After the Fed cut rates by a quarter point in September 2025, the average mortgage rate actually rose from 6.26 percent to 6.34 percent over the following two weeks.8Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Not Joined at the Hip: The Relationship between the Fed Funds Rate and Mortgage Rates Inflation expectations, fiscal policy, and investor demand for mortgage-backed securities matter at least as much as the September vote.
Auto Loans and Savings
Auto loan rates tend to move with the Fed directionally, though your credit score has more to do with the rate you are actually quoted. Savings accounts also respond, but not uniformly. Online banks generally adjust high-yield savings rates faster and pay more than traditional brick-and-mortar banks, which have higher overhead and less pressure to compete on deposits.
Full 2026 FOMC Calendar
The September meeting is the sixth of eight scheduled in 2026. Asterisks mark the four that include the Summary of Economic Projections:1Federal Reserve. Federal Open Market Committee – Meeting Calendars and Information
- January 27–28
- March 17–18*
- April 28–29
- June 16–17*
- July 28–29
- September 15–16*
- October 27–28
- December 8–9*