Federal Reserve Bank/Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve Bank is the Central Bank of the U.S.  It’s one of twelve operating arms of the Federal Reserve System, located throughout the nation.  Together with a total of 25 branches, they are responsible for various activities, including operating a nationwide payments system, distributing the nation's currency and coin, supervising and regulating member banks and bank holding companies and serving as banker for the U.S. Treasury.

The Federal Reserve’s primary responsibility is to keep the economy functioning in an orderly manner by attempting control the rate of inflation and by resolving unfixable bottlenecks in the banking system. It controls the so-called money supply – the available money through two key interest rates.

SeeFederal Funds Rate.