The Federal Reserve
Summary
Created when Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Fed ran on a $7.41 billion net operating budget and 24,875 full-time staff budgeted for 2025 -- about $21.68 per U.S. resident -- to set interest rates, supervise 3,747 bank holding companies, and run Fedwire, which moved $1.13 quadrillion in 2024.
The organization
Its mission
The charge is statutory: Section 2A of the Federal Reserve Act directs the Board and the FOMC to "promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates"⧉ -- the mandate every rate decision answers to.
Founded when, and why
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law on December 23, 1913⧉. The Act's own title names the problem: "to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States"⧉.
What it costs — money and people
The Fed isn't funded through congressional appropriations: its income comes from interest on the securities it holds, and after covering its own costs it turns the rest over to the U.S. Treasury⧉. Combined, the Board, its Inspector General, the 12 Reserve Banks, and currency operations budgeted $7,409.3 million in operating expenses, net of service revenue and reimbursement, for 2025 -- up from $6,837.5 million actually spent in 2024⧉, on 24,875 budgeted full-time-equivalent staff for 2025, up from 24,179 actual in 2024⧉. Against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million Vintage 2025 population estimate⧉, that is $21.68 per U.S. resident.
View data as table
| Reserve Banks | 6,382.5 |
|---|---|
| Currency | 1,263.6 |
| Board of Governors | 1,168.6 |
| Office of Inspector General | 41.3 |
What it produces
Its Board supervised 3,747 bank holding companies and 1,402 state member banks at year-end 2024⧉. Its 12 Reserve Banks run the country's core payment plumbing: the Fedwire Funds Service alone moved $1,133,419,684 million across 209,916,835 wire transfers in 2024⧉.
Value to society, by the numbers
The mechanism is emergency liquidity: a bank facing a run can borrow from the Fed's discount window rather than fail outright. In the week Silicon Valley Bank closed, March 10, 2023⧉, System-wide discount-window borrowing jumped to $84,957 million for the week ending March 15 -- up $80,522 million from the week before⧉, a nearly twentyfold jump in seven days. That standing facility is the counterfactual: without a lender of last resort, a bank run has nowhere to go for immediate cash, and one failure risks cascading into the next.
- The Fed's 2025 budgeted operating cost ($7.41B net of revenue, 24,875 ) runs separately from the trillions in securities on its balance sheet and the $1.13 quadrillion Fedwire moved in 2024 -- the System's own administrative cost is $21.68 per U.S. resident, not a bill anyone is charged, since the Fed funds itself from interest income rather than taxes.
- The 2025 budgeted total (24,875) is up 696 from 2024's actual headcount (24,179) -- but 2024 actual itself landed 423 below the 24,602 originally budgeted for that year, so a budgeted increase is a plan, not a guarantee of realized headcount.
Your handles.* File a complaint about a state member bank or ask a banking question through Federal Reserve Consumer Help. Comment on a pending Fed rulemaking through the Board's Proposals for Comment docket. Request Board records under the Board's FOIA process.
Sources(11) ▾
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve History (centennial overview) (2013) — The Board's own centennial page stating the exact date the Federal Reserve Act was signed and by whom, and the Board+12 Reserve Banks structure. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Who We Are (The Fed Explained) (2026) — The Board's own current structure page (the older structure-federal-reserve-system.htm URL now redirects here): the FOMC's composition and meeting cadence. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FAQs), What does it mean that the Federal Reserve is "independent within the government"? (2026) — The Board's own FAQ describing its funding model (interest income on securities, not congressional appropriations; surplus remitted to Treasury) and its accountability to Congress. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Act — Official title and preamble (2017-03-27) — The Board's own hosted text of the Federal Reserve Act's official title — the statute's statement of the problem it was enacted to solve (elastic currency, rediscounting, more effective supervision of banking). Source for the founded-why beat. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Act — Section 2A. Monetary policy objectives (2017-02-13) — The Board's own hosted text of Section 2A of the Federal Reserve Act (12 USC 225a) — the statutory mandate (maximum employment, stable prices, moderate long-term interest rates). Authorizing language for the mission beat, not marketing copy. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve System Budgets (2024 Annual Report, Section 12 / Appendix D) (2026-01-22) — The Board's own Annual Report budget appendix -- Table D.1 (Total Operating Expenses, 2024 budget/actual and 2025 budget, by Board//Reserve Banks/Currency, gross and net of revenue/reimbursement) and Table D.2 (Employment/, same breakdown). Source for every budget and figure in this entry. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Supervision and Regulation chapter, 2024 Annual Report of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (2026-01-22) — The Board's own year-end 2024 counts of bank holding companies and state member banks it supervises (Supervision and Regulation chapter, PDF pp.30-31) -- the workload figures for "what does it do." The standalone HTML chapter page (2024-ar-supervision-and-regulation.htm) mirrors this same text but could not be archived at fetch time, so the full PDF Annual Report -- which carries an independent capture -- is cited instead. federalreserve.gov · original document
- Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRBservices.org, operated by the Federal Reserve Banks), Fedwire Funds Service -- Annual Statistics (2026) — The Reserve Banks' own published volume/value statistics for the Fedwire Funds Service -- 2024 full-year transfer count and dollar value, the payment-system workload figure for "what does it do." frbservices.org · original document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Factors Affecting Reserve Balances of Depository Institutions (H.4.1), release dated 2023-03-16 (week ended 2023-03-15) (2023-03-16) — The Board's own weekly balance-sheet release, Table 1, "Primary credit" line -- the discount-window borrowing spike during the week Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed. Source for the lender-of-last-resort mechanism in "Why is it good for society." federalreserve.gov · original document
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC Acts to Protect All Depositors of the former Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California (2023-03-13) — 's own press release confirming Silicon Valley Bank was closed March 10, 2023 -- dates the discount-window spike documented above. fdic.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimates) (2026-01-27) — Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate (341.8 million as of July 1, 2025) -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI. census.gov · original document
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The Federal Reserve System is the United States' central bank: a Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. and 12 regional Reserve Banks⧉, with monetary policy set by the Federal Open Market Committee, which meets at least eight times a year⧉.