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About Us

The Federal Reserve System includes 12 independent regional Reserve Banks located across the U.S. and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. The Philadelphia Fed is the home of the Federal Reserve’s Third District, serving Delaware, southern New Jersey, and eastern and central Pennsylvania.

What We Do

The Federal Reserve is the nation’s central bank, committed to fostering a sound financial system and a healthy economy. Our public service mission is to strengthen the economy and our communities by fostering the stability, integrity, and efficiency of our nation’s monetary, financial, and payments systems.

Established by Congress in 1913, the Federal Reserve carries out its mission through five key functions:

  • Monetary policy: Setting the nation’s monetary policy to promote our economic goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.
  • Financial stability: Promoting financial system stability by monitoring financial system risks and engaging at home and abroad to support a healthy economy for U.S. households, communities, and businesses.
  • Supervision & regulation: Supervising and regulating financial institutions to help ensure the safety and soundness of individual institutions and monitoring their impact on the financial system as a whole. The Federal Reserve also provides financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions.
  • Payment systems: Fostering a safe, efficient, and accessible payments system for U.S. dollar transactions and electronic fund transfers.
  • Consumers & communities: Promoting consumer protection and community development by engaging with individuals, as well as community and business leaders, to better understand local economic conditions, issues, and the impacts of financial services policies and practices on consumers and communities. We also provide economic and financial education resources to support teachers, students, and consumers.

How We’re Structured

There are three key entities in the Federal Reserve System: 

  • The Board of Governors, a federal agency located in Washington, D.C., which is the governing body of the Federal Reserve System. Learn more.
  • The 12 regional Reserve Banks, which were established by the Congress as the operating arms of the nation’s central banking system. Each Reserve Bank operates within its own geographic area, or district, of the United States. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia — also known as the Philadelphia Fed — represents the Third District. Learn more about how the Reserve Banks serve their districts and the nation. Learn more.
  • The Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, a 12-person group of Federal Reserve System officials that sets crucial U.S. monetary policy at meetings held at least eight times each year. Learn more.

How We Do It

We are nonpartisan and decentralized by design to conduct monetary policy that is in the long-run best interest of the economy. The Federal Reserve is accountable to the American people through comprehensive audits and reviews, as well as regular reports to Congress. We are open and transparent about our operations — publishing our balance sheets each week, releasing Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes after each meeting, and speaking frequently to the public and media. To learn more about the Federal Reserve System, visit The Fed Explained.