The Federal Reserve Bank, better known as ‘The Fed’, is the central bank of the United States. However, the Fed is actually made up of 12 smaller banks each representing a region of the United States.
The Federal Reserve branches are listed below:
- Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
- Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
- Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
- Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
- Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
- Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
What does the Federal Reserve Bank do?
The Federal Reserve Bank has a few different responsibilities. Most of which are for the U.S. government itself.
- Acting as depositories for bank reserves
- Lending to banks to cover short-term fund deficits, seasonal business cycles, or extraordinary liquidity demands
- Collecting & clearing payments between banks
- Issuing bank notes for general circulation as currency
- Administering the deposit accounts of the federal government
- Conducting auctions and buybacks of federal debt