Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed)

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is one of a number of United States bank regulatory agencies that supervise financial institutions depending on their type of banking charter. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve oversees state-chartered banks and trust companies that belong to the Federal Reserve System (Fed).

The Federal Reserve System (comprised of the Federal Reserve Board and member Federal Reserve Banks) is the central bank of the United States. It was created by Congress on 23 December 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Today the Federal Reserve's duties fall into four general areas:

• conducting the nation’s monetary policy;
• super­vising and regulating banking institutions and pro­tecting the credit rights of consumers;
• maintain­ing the stability of the financial system; and
• providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, the public, financial institutions, and foreign official institutions.

Among its many tasks, the Federal Reserve promulgates regulations that govern the financial institutions that it supervises and conducts examinations at financial institutions of their compliance with the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and other laws.