Federal Reserve officials had “many questions” about the benefits of yield-curve control when they discussed its pros and cons during their meeting in early June.

“Many participants remarked that, as long as the committee’s forward guidance remained credible on its own, it was not clear that there would be a need for the committee to reinforce its forward guidance with the adoption of a YCT policy,” minutes published Wednesday of the June 9-10 Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed. YCT refers to yield caps or targets.

U.S. central bankers left interest rates near zero at the session, which was conducted via video conference. They also agreed to keep purchasing Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds at a pace of about US$120 billion a month.

In a press conference that followed, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said officials were “not even thinking about thinking about raising rates.”