Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Map of Federal Reserve districts

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is located at 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses New York state, the 12 northern counties of New Jersey, Fairfield County in Connecticut, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.

Working within the Federal Reserve System, the New York Fed implements monetary policy, supervises and regulates financial institutions and helps maintain the nation's payment systems.[New York Federal Reserve]

Largest regional Federal Reserve Bank

Since the founding of the Federal Reserve banking system, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan's Financial District has been the place where monetary policy in the United States is implemented, although policy is decided in Washington, D.C. by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The New York Federal reserve is the largest, in terms of assets, and the most important of the twelve regional banks. Operating in the financial capital of the U.S., the New York Fed is responsible for conducting open market operations, the buying and selling of outstanding U.S. Treasury securities. Note that the responsibility for issuing new U.S. Treasury securities lies with the Bureau of the Public Debt. In 2003, Fedwire, the Federal Reserve's system for transferring balances between it and other banks, transferred $1.8 trillion a day in funds, of which about $1.1 trillion originated in the Second District. It transferred an additional $1.3 trillion a day in securities, of which $1.2 trillion originated in the Second District. The New York Fed is also responsible for carrying out exchange rate policy by buying and selling dollars at the direction of the United States Treasury Department. The New York Federal Reserve is the only regional bank with a permanent vote on the Federal Open Market Committee and its president is traditionally selected as the Committee's vice chairman. The current president is William C. Dudley.

The New York Fed opened for business on November 16, 1914 under the leadership of Benjamin Strong Jr., who was previously president of the Bankers Trust Company. He led the Bank until his death in 1928. The Bank grew rapidly during the early years, bringing about the need for a new home.

33 Liberty Street

Federal Reserve Bank of New York building

A public competition for design of the building was held and the architectural firm of York and Sawyer submitted the winning design.^{[citation needed]} The bank moved to its current location in 1924.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York maintains a vault that lies 80 feet (24 m) below street level, resting on Manhattan bedrock^[1]. By 1927, the vault contained ten percent of the world's official gold reserves. Currently, it is reputedly the largest gold repository in the world (though this cannot be confirmed as Swiss Banks do not report their gold stocks) and holds approximately 5,000 metric tons of gold bullion ($160 billion as of March 2008), more than Fort Knox. The gold is owned by many foreign nations, central banks and international organizations. The Federal Reserve Bank does not own the gold but serves as guardian of the precious metal, which it protects at no charge as a gesture of goodwill to other nations.

New York Board of Directors

The following people are on the board of directors as of 2009:^[2]

Resignation of Stephen Friedman, Chair

Stephen Friedman resigned as Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Thursday, May 7, 2009 effective immediately^[3]. Friedman, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, had been criticized for seemingly benefiting from his role as Chair of the New York Fed branch due to the US Government's aid to Goldman Sachs in recent months. The announcement came within an hour of the government's release of the stress tests for 19 US banks. Dennis Hughes, formerly Deputy Chair, was designated as Interim Chair following Friedman's resignation.

Class A

Class B

Class C

All terms expire on December 31.^[2]

Presidents

Presidents of the bank since its founding have been:

• William C. Dudley, 2009-
• Timothy Geithner, 2003–2009
• William J. McDonough, 1993–2003
• E. Gerald Corrigan, 1985–1993
• Anthony M. Solomon, 1980–1985
• Paul Volcker, 1975–1979
• Alfred Hayes, 1956–1975
• Allan Sproul, 1941–1956
• George L. Harrison, 1928–1940
• Benjamin Strong Jr., 1914–1928

Popular Culture

In the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance, a group of criminals have developed a heist that involves stealing more than $100 billion dollars in gold from the Federal Reserve Bank.

See also

• Federal Reserve Bank
• Economy of New York City
• Official gold reserves

References

External links

• Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Coordinates: 40°42′30″N 74°00′31″W / 40.708432°N 74.008493°W / 40.708432; -74.008493