NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve on Tuesday awarded $54.85 billion to primary dealers at an operation of overnight repurchase agreements in an effort to maintain the federal funds rate within its target range of 1.75%-2.00%.

Tuesday’s amount was smaller than the $63.5 billion in overnight repos the regional central bank awarded on Monday, the New York Fed website showed.

The overnight cash in the banking system was an addition to the $139 billion from three 14-day term repo operations last week.

In mid-afternoon trading, the general collateral repo rate USONRP= was bid at 2.02%, compared with 1.95% late on Monday.

GRAPHIC: U.S. Fed repos - tmsnrt.rs/2mSQKmy