Contents
1 Overview of the Federal Reserve System ............................. vi
The U.S. Approach to Central Banking ..................................... 2
The Decentralized System Structure and Its Philosophy ........................ 3
The Reserve Banks: A Blend of Private and Governmental Characteristics ........... 4
2 The Three Key System Entities ...................................... 6
The Federal Reserve Board: Selection and Function ........................... 7
The Federal Reserve Banks: Structure and Function ........................... 8
The Federal Open Market Committee: Selection and Function .................... 12
Other Signicant Entities Contributing to Federal Reserve Functions ............... 13
3 Conducting Monetary Policy ........................................ 16
The Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Mandate and Strategy and Why It Matters ..... 21
The Conduct of Monetary Policy ......................................... 24
Monetary Policy Tools ................................................ 34
How Monetary Policy Is Implemented ..................................... 39
4 Promoting Financial System Stability ................................ 46
What Is Financial Stability? ............................................ 47
Monitoring Risk across the Financial System ................................ 48
Macroprudential Supervision and Regulation of Large, Complex Financial Institutions ... 55
Domestic and International Cooperation and Coordination ...................... 57
5 Supervising and Regulating Financial Institutions and Activities ......... 62
Overview of the Federal Reserve’s Financial Institution Oversight ................. 63
How the Federal Reserve Supervises Financial Institutions ...................... 69
How the Federal Reserve Regulates Financial Institutions ...................... 75
6 Fostering Payment and Settlement System Safety and Efciency ........ 84
Overview of Key Federal Reserve Payment System Functions .................... 86
Providing Services to Banks and the Federal Government ....................... 86
The U.S. Payment System Today and Reserve Bank Services .................... 88
Regulating and Supervising the Payment System ............................. 104
Providing Banking System Liquidity ....................................... 108
Exploring and Implementing Payment System Improvements ..................... 109
