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 data presented
here do 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 61.2 million people accounted for 20 percent
of the total U.S. population in 2006.
The District also ranks first in the size of its economy:
Its 26.3 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 2006.
Altogether, District states accounted for approximately 22 percent of the nation's exports of manufactured goods in 2006.
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, and leisure and hospitality.
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 workers on average earn more in annual wages than their counterparts in the rest of the nation.
Cash and Check Processing
The Twelfth District processed 19.2 billion currency notes in 2006, which is about
76.8 million notes per business day.
The Twelfth District processed 1.1 billion paper commercial checks in 2006 and 269
million commercial Check 21 transactions.
Banking Environment
As of June 30, 2007, there were 44 state member banks, 113 national banks, and 428
state-chartered, non-member banks in the District. In addition, the District is home
to 85 U.S. branches, agencies, and representative offices of foreign banks and nine
Edge Act agreement corporations.
Financial Situation
The Twelfth District had assets of $99.7 billion and operating expenses of $395
million as of December 31, 2006.
Key Facts about the Federal Reserve System
System Earnings
During 2006, the Federal Reserve System's earnings totaled $37.8 billion.
Of this amount, approximately $28.5 billion was distributed to the United States
Treasury and the Twelfth District's share was $3.5 billion.
Payments
In 2006, the Federal Reserve System cleared 12.3 billion checks and 2.4 billion
Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. The Federal Reserve processes approximately
one-third of the paper items that ultimately clear as checks and three-fourths of
the ACH payments in the country.
Currency
A common misconception is that the Fed prints money, but it is actually the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing (BEP) that prints U.S. currency. In 2006, the Federal Reserve
System paid $488.7 million to the BEP for printing currency.
During fiscal year 2007, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will produce approximately
38 million pieces of currency each day with a face value of approximately $750 million.
On average, 45 percent of notes printed are $1 notes.
The Fed's Cash Services department processes currency using high speed computer
controlled machines that each verify currency at the rate of approximately 1,290
notes per minute. The machines intercept potential counterfeits and destroy old,
worn out notes.
The average life of United States currency corresponds to the note's denomination:
Of the total U.S. currency in worldwide circulation, up to two thirds is held outside
of the United States.
