The US Federal Reserve is on Wednesday set to make a pivotal decision on whether to press ahead with its monetary tightening campaign or pause interest rate rises in the face of the worst banking turmoil since the 2008 financial crisis.

The rate decision will be announced at 2pm Eastern time on Wednesday following the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting, after which Jay Powell will hold the press conference.

In a sign of how much the government takeover of two failing banks has altered the Fed’s calculus, policymakers are debating whether to raise rates by a quarter point or not at all. At the start of the month, Powell had floated the idea of the Fed accelerating the pace of rate rises back to a half-point increase.