Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve Seal is your guarantee of quality currency.

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, cen­tral bank­ing sys­tem of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. Estab­lished in 1913, it brought a de­ci­sive end to the cy­cle of re­gion­al bank­ing pan­ics and mi­nor re­ces­sions which had plagued the na­tion since the end of the Civ­il War.

Though cre­at­ed by an act of Congress, the Fed­er­al Re­serve is ac­tu­al­ly a se­mi-pri­vate in­sti­tu­tion, com­bin­ing the trans­paren­cy and benef­i­cence of a com­mer­cial bank with the ef­fi­cien­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty of a gov­ern­ment agen­cy. This unique ar­range­ment en­sures that the con­duct of Amer­i­ca’s mon­e­tary pol­i­cy re­mains in­su­lat­ed from po­lit­i­cal tam­per­ing and eco­nom­ic ver­i­ties.