How does the Federal Reserve unwind the asset purchasing scheme announced in response to the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic? On Monday, 06 April, 2020 the Financial Times reported that the Federal Reserve balance sheet could increase to $9 trillion.  This is partly due to the myriad of initiatives, some new, to protect the economy of the United States during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.  

A lot of online commentary is alarmist and centres on the threat of hyperinflation and many of the news articles don't inform the reader how the Federal Reserve purchases assets.. This puts the average citizen at a disadvantage when understanding the economic impact.  

My question is multi-faceted (but singlular) and aiming to focus purely on the economics.


How does the Federal Reserve unwind the positions on their books?  Do financial services have to purchase the assets back at a later date and does the Federal Reserve charge a premium for the service?
Can a position of this size (60% of national output) actually be unwound?


If this question is similar to the approaches of other Central Banks then please tag accordingly if appropriate.
The unwind depends upon what the central bank did.


If the central bank did a repurchase agreement (“repo”) or lent against assets for a fixed time, the agreement automatically unwinds at the term of the deal (which is short). They would need to enter into new deals to keep their balance sheet size unchanged.
If they bought the asset outright, it will either mature, or the central bank can sell ahead of maturity.


There are no “charging a premium” involved; the cost of the operation is embedded in the lending cost (or purchase/sales price of an asset).

There was a very large debate about unwinding central bank balance sheets in the 2010-2016 (?) period. The Fed was eventually able to slowly reduce the size of its balance sheet in the last cycle, and there is no reason to believe that this time is different. There is no sign that an “unwind” was necessary, nor are the effects of unwinding a deep concern.