As the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve supports the effective operation of the US economy, acting in the public interest to promote the stability of the financial system.

The Federal Reserve's balance sheet has undergone significant changes since 2007, reflecting its response to major economic crises. From a modest *** trillion U.S. dollars at the end of 2007, it ballooned to approximately **** trillion U.S. dollars by October 29, 2025. This dramatic expansion, particularly during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic—both of which resulted in negative annual GDP growth in the U.S.—showcases the Fed's crucial role in stabilizing the economy through expansionary monetary policies. Impact on inflation and interest rates The Fed's expansionary measures, while aimed at stimulating economic growth, have had notable effects on inflation and interest rates. Following the quantitative easing in 2020, inflation in the United States reached ***** percent in 2022, the highest since 1991. However, by August 2025, inflation had declined to *** percent. Concurrently, the Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate hikes, with the rate peaking at **** percent in August 2023, before the first rate cut since September 2021 occurred in September 2024. Financial implications for the Federal Reserve The expansion of the Fed's balance sheet and subsequent interest rate hikes have had significant financial implications. In 2024, the Fed reported a negative net income of ***** billion U.S. dollars, a stark contrast to the ***** billion U.S. dollars profit in 2022. This unprecedented shift was primarily due to rapidly rising interest rates, which caused the Fed's interest expenses to soar to over *** billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Despite this, the Fed's net interest income on securities acquired through open market operations reached a record high of ****** billion U.S. dollars in the same year.

Examiners in Banking Supervision conduct exams and inspections at more than 200 financial institutions in our district. This graphic describes the basics of the examination process and why supervision is one of the Federal Reserve’s key functions.

View the total value of the assets of all Federal Reserve Banks as reported in the weekly balance sheet.

Join us for a conversation with Beth Hammack, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, to discuss the critical functions of Reserve Banks, the state of the economy, and ways Reserve Banks engage with the public.

This activity will no longer be maintained after June 16, 2025. Current lessons are available in the K-12 Classroom Activities Gallery.

This activity uses Map Viewer. ResourcesMapTeacher guide Student worksheetGet startedOpen the map.Use the teacher guide to explore the map with your class or have students work through it on their own with the worksheet.New to GeoInquiriesTM? See Getting to Know GeoInquiries.Social Studies standardsC3: D2.Civ.6.9-12 – Critique relationships among governments, civil societies, and economic markets.C3:D2.Civ.13.9-12 – Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.Learning outcomesStudents will be able to identify the structure and function of the Federal Reserve system.More activitiesAll Government GeoInquiriesAll GeoInquiries

Graph and download economic data for Federal government current tax receipts: Taxes on production and imports: Customs duties (B235RC1Q027SBEA) from Q1 1959 to Q2 2025 about receipts, imports, tax, federal, production, government, GDP, and USA.

Core banking services providers play key roles helping depository institutions (DIs) offer instant payments. Specifically, core providers process transactions in real time and connect DIs to instant payments system operators, upgrade customer-facing solutions, and facilitate open banking and embedded finance. As the United States implements instant payments systems, the market structure surrounding core providers may evolve, and competition between fintechs and DIs for end users may intensify.

A central bank is the term used to describe the authority responsible for policies that affect a country’s supply of money and credit. More specifically, a central bank uses its tools of monetary policy—open market operations, discount window lending, changes in reserve requirements—to affect short-term interest rates and the monetary base (currency held by the public plus bank reserves) and to achieve important policy goals.

Graph and download economic data for Assets: Securities Held Outright: U.S. Treasury Securities: All: Wednesday Level (TREAST) from 2002-12-18 to 2025-11-26 about maturity, Treasury, securities, and USA.

abstract The Covid-19 crisis reinforced and consolidated a template for global monetary cooperation, aiming to keep the international financial markets functioning. At the core of the monetary system, the legal design for cooperation has changed substantially: from the central role of multilateral organizations responsible for organizing collective actions (such as the International Monetary Fund - IMF), to more flexible contractual arrangements, formalized by a network of Central Bank swaps. The management of the Covid-19 monetary impacts reveals a new Bretton Woods moment, organized in novel political and legal terms. This article argues that Law has an explanatory and constitutive role in this substantial development. The US dollar, as a global currency, is structured by a specific type of contract, the eurodollar. In times of crisis, this contract requires an international lender of last resort that provides unlimited financial support to the currency’s global uses. Only a financial institution organized as a central bank has the legal and economic capacity to perform this role - not a multilateral fund. The hierarchical network of Central Bank swaps, with the American Central Bank (the Federal Reserve - Fed) at the top, was the legal arrangement structured to support the functioning of the global financial market and its currency par excellence, the eurodollar.

A primary purpose of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was to prevent banking panics by establishing the Federal Reserve System to function as a lender of last resort. Other types of financial crisis require a similar response, however, and the Federal Reserve has repeatedly used its capacity to generate liquidity to insulate the economy from crises in financial markets. The Fed's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is the most recent example of this. This paper reviews the Fed's responses to crises and potential crises in financial markets: the stock market crash of 1987, the Russian default, and the September 11th attacks.

The Federal Reserve uses this event-driven survey to obtain information specifically tailored to the Federal Reserve's supervisory, regulatory, and operational responsibilities. The Federal Reserve conducts the survey as needed up to 24 times per year. The frequency and content of the questions depend on changing economic, regulatory, supervisory, or legislative developments. Respondents comprise financial businesses. This survey may be mandatory for financial institutions regulated by the Federal Reserve and voluntary for all other respondents.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland works on regional and national levels to strengthen the US economy. Learn about our responsibilities and the services we deliver.

Open banking, which allows third-party financial apps to access consumer financial data electronically and securely, relies on data aggregators to establish connections with consumers’ financial institutions and extract consumer data. Data aggregators are critical to enhancing consumer financial services and increasing competition—both among financial service providers and across payment methods. However, their role raises some concerns related to data security, data privacy, and competition.

In this paper we model and explain US macroeconomic outcomes subject to the discipline that monetary policy is set optimally. Exploiting the restrictions that come from optimal policymaking, we estimate the parameters in the Federal Reserve's policy objective function together with the parameters in its optimization constraints. For the period following Volcker's appointment as chairman, we estimate the implicit inflation target to be around 1.4% and show that policymakers assigned a significant weight to interest rate smoothing. We show that the estimated optimal policy provides a good description of US data for the 1980s and 1990s.

On August 23, 2013, the Federal Reserve published a final rule in the Federal Register (78 FR 52391). This final rule implements section 318 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which directs the Federal Reserve to collect assessments, fees, or other charges equal to the total expenses the Federal Reserve estimates are necessary or appropriate to carry out the supervisory and regulatory responsibilities of the Federal Reserve for bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and nonbank financial companies designated for Federal Reserve supervision by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Each assessed company would have thirty calendar days from June 30 or, for the 2012 assessment period, thirty calendar days from the Board’s issuance of a notice of assessment for that assessment period, to submit a written statement to appeal the Board’s determination (1) that the company is an assessed company or (2) of the company’s total assessable assets. These reporting requirements are found in section 246.5(b) of the final rule.

The survey data are used to gather information specifically tailored to the Federal Reserve’s policy and operational responsibilities. The frequency and content of the questions, as well as the entities contacted, vary depending on developments in the economy.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Saving Rate (PSAVERT) from Jan 1959 to Aug 2025 about savings, personal, rate, and USA.

Join us for a Fed Talk about how organizations can incorporate financial literacy into career conversations with people entering the workforce.