17 Facts About The Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States of America.

Congress established three key objectives for monetary policy in the Federal Reserve Act: maximizing employment, stabilizing prices, and moderating long-term interest rates.

The Federal Reserve System was designed as an attempt to prevent or minimize the occurrence of bank runs, and possibly act as a lender of last resort when a bank run does occur.

The Federal Reserve plays a role in the nation's retail and wholesale payments systems by providing financial services to depository institutions.

The System does not require public funding, and derives its authority and purpose from the Federal Reserve Act, which was passed by Congress in 1913 and is subject to Congressional modification or repeal.

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The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is a permanent member of the FOMC; the presidents of the other banks rotate membership at two- and three-year intervals.

Federal Reserve Banks have an intermediate legal status, with some features of private corporations and some features of public federal agencies.

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 gave the Federal Reserve authority to set monetary policy in the United States.

The Federal Reserve's response has continued to evolve since pressure on credit markets began to surface last summer, but all these measures derive from the Fed's traditional open market operations and discount window tools by extending the term of transactions, the type of collateral, or eligible borrowers.

Federal Reserve recently unveiled a term auction facility, or TAF, through which prespecified amounts of discount window credit can be auctioned to eligible borrowers.

The Federal Reserve authorized up to five "small-value offerings" in 2010 as a pilot program.

Under that policy, the Federal Reserve buys back corporate bonds and mortgage backed securities held by banks or other financial institutions.

Ultimately, a third national bank, known as the Federal Reserve, was established in 1913 and still exists to this day.

The plan became the basis for the Federal Reserve Act, which was proposed by Senator Robert Owen in May 1913.

Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 statistics in March 2006, saying that the data cost a lot to collect but did not provide significantly useful information.

Federal Reserve has been remitting interest that it has been receiving back to the United States Treasury.

Federal Reserve System has faced various criticisms since its inception in 1913.