文档介绍：340 PART IV Central Banking and the Conduct of ary Policy
The 12 Federal Reserve banks are involved in ary policy in several ways:
1. Their directors “establish” the discount rate (although the discount rate in each
district is reviewed and determined by the Board of Governors).
2. They decide which banks, member and nonmember alike, can obtain discount
loans from the Federal Reserve bank.
3. Their directors select mercial banker from each bank’s district to serve on
the Federal Advisory Council, which consults with the Board of Governors and
provides information that helps in the conduct of ary policy.
4. Five of the 12 bank presidents each have a vote in the Federal Open Market
Committee, which directs open market operations (the purchase and sale of
government securities that affect both interest rates and the amount of reserves in
the banking system). As explained in Box 2, the president of the New York Fed
always has a vote in the FOMC, making it the most important of the banks; the
other four votes allocated to the district banks rotate annually among the remain-
ing 11 presidents.
Member Banks All national banks (commercial banks chartered by the Office of ptroller of the
Currency) are required to be members of the Federal Reserve System. Commercial
banks chartered by the states are not required to be members, but they can choose to
join. Currently, around one-third of mercial banks in the United States are
members of the Federal Reserve System, having declined from a peak figure of 49%
in 1947.
Before 1980, only member banks were required to keep reserves as deposits at
the Federal Reserve banks. Nonmember banks were subject to reserve requirements
determined by their states, which typically allowed them to hold much of their
reserves in interest-bearing securities. Because no interest is paid on reserves
deposited at the Federal Reserve banks, it was costly to be a member of the system,
and as interest ra