联邦准备系统(Federal Reserve System)

美国具有中央银行作用的机构。根据「1913年联邦准备法」建立，由该系统董事会、十二家联邦准备银行、联邦公开市场委员会、联邦顾问委员会所组成，自1976年起还设有消费谘询委员会。所有国民银行必须是联邦准备银行的会员；州银行如符合会员资格，亦可成为会员。联邦准备系统负责制定货币政策，原始法令规定了固定的准备金以符合美国的部分准备金银行制度。准许每一区银行决定自己的贴现率，贴现率是联邦准备银行对其会员银行短期担保贷款所收取的利率。现代联邦准备系统是根据1935年的「联邦准备法」来的，准许委员会决定在要求上限内准备金的多寡，变成要负责批准地区银行的贴现率。最重要的是，法令创造了联邦准备公开市场委员会，负责以增减商业银行准备金的规模大小来指导金融市场的运作，如果联邦准备系统放松货币政策，它就会使用公开市场操作，透过购买金融债券而增加准备金的量。相反地，如果要紧缩货币政策就要透过卖掉金融债券。

English version：

Federal Reserve System

U.S. central bank system consisting of 12 Federal Reserve districts with a Reserve bank in the principal commercial city of each district. The system is supervised by a board of governors in Washington, D.C., as well as various advisory councils and committees. As a result of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, all national banks are required to join the system; state banks may join if they meet membership qualifications. The Federal Reserve is responsible for monetary policy. The original act set fixed reserve requirements for the U.S. fractional reserve banking system. It allowed each district bank to determine its discount rate, the rate it charged on loans to member banks. The modern Federal Reserve resulted from the Federal Reserve Act of 1935, which allowed the board to determine reserve requirements within defined limits. It became responsible for approving the discount rates of the district banks. Most importantly, the act created the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, which is responsible for conducting operations in financial markets that increase or decrease the amount of reserves in the system. If the Federal Reserve wants to ease monetary policy, it will use open-market operations and increase the amount of reserves through the purchase of financial assets. Conversely, it can tighten monetary policy through the sale of financial assets.