Key Facts (Revised 2012)

Key Facts about the 12th District (PDF - 253KB)
Economic Profile of the 12th District (PDF - 65KB)
About the Fed

The Twelfth Federal Reserve District

San Francisco is the headquarters of the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, which includes the nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—plus American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Branch offices are located in Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle, with a cash processing center in Phoenix. The information presented in this document does not include the District’s island territories.

Geography and Demographics

Of the Twelve Federal Reserve Districts, the Twelfth District is the largest, covering about 1.3 million square miles, or 35 percent of the nation’s area.

• The District’s estimated 64.1 million people accounted for a little more than 21 percent of the total U.S. population in 2011.

The District also ranks first in the size of its economy:

• Its 24.8 million workers accounted for about 19 percent of the nation’s total nonfarm employment and they earned around 21 percent of the nation’s total personal income in 2011.
  
  
• Altogether, District states accounted for a bit over 20 percent of the nation’s exports of manufactured goods in 2011.
  
  
• In broad terms, the District’s industry mix mirrors that of the rest of the nation.
  
  
  • However, the District employs a slightly higher share of workers in the following major sectors: construction, information, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and government.
    
    
  • Several of the nation’s leading information technology (IT) centers are located in the District. As a percentage of total nonfarm workers, the District employs a considerably larger share of IT workers than the rest of the nation. Moreover, these District IT workers on average earn more in annual wages than IT workers in the rest of the nation.

Cash and Check Processing

The Twelfth District processed 17.3 billion currency notes in 2011, which is about 68.7 million notes per day. The Fed’s Cash Services department processes currency using high speed computer controlled machines that are each capable of verifying over 1,800 notes per minute. The machines intercept potential counterfeits and destroy old, worn out notes.

Banking Environment

As of June 30, 2012, there were 243 bank holding companies, 41 savings and loan holding companies, 36 state member banks, 82 national banks, and 333 state-chartered, non-member banks in the District. In addition, the District is home to 66 U.S. branches, agencies, and representative offices of foreign banks and three Edge Act agreement corporations.

Financial Situation

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco had assets of $293.1 billion and operating expenses of $494 million as of December 31, 2011.

System Earnings

During 2011, the Federal Reserve System’s earnings totaled approximately $77.4 billion. Of this amount, approximately $75.4 billion was distributed to the United States Treasury and the Twelfth District’s share was $7.8 billion.

Payments

In 2011, the Federal Reserve System cleared 6.7 billion commercial checks, consisting of 7 million paper checks and 6.7 billion electronic Check 21 transactions. In addition, 10.4 billion commercial and 1.3 billion government payments were processed Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. The Federal Reserve processes approximately one-third of the paper items that ultimately clear as checks and nearly three-fourths of the ACH payments in the country.

Data sources available upon request. Revised October 2012.