What are the Federal Reserve's responsibilities?
Today, the Federal Reserve's responsibilities fall into four general areas:
- conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices
- supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers
- maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
- providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, to the public, to financial institutions, and to foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation's payments systems
For an overview of the Federal Reserve and its responsibilities, see The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions (at this link)
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pf/pf.htm