The Federal Reserve System is the central bank system of the United States of America. It is comprised of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Open Market Committee and twelve central banks located in cities across the U.S. The key tasks of the federal reserve system are creating and distributing base money in the form of U.S. dollars and coinage. Other key roles of the Federal Reserve System include steering and controlling inflation and deflation, supervising the U.S. banking sector, and maintaining the U.S. dollar fiat currency.
The twelve central banks which collectively operate the federal reserve system are the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Some of these central banks have branch offices in addition to their headquarters.
The board of governors of the Federal Reserve System is located at its headquarters in Washington D.C.
See also: Swiss National Bank.
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