Banks borrowed slightly more from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program over the past week but the amount was still well below levels reached during the height of the financial crisis.

The Fed said that commercial banks averaged $19.45 billion in daily borrowing for the week that ended Wednesday. That was up from $18.74 billion in average borrowing for the previous week.

As financial conditions have improved, banks have scaled back their use of the Fed's emergency discount loan window. At the peak of the crisis, which struck in the fall of 2008, banks' daily borrowing from the discount window reached $110 billion, reflecting banks' serious trouble getting loans through normal private-market channels.