Overview

About Banking Supervision 

The Federal Reserve promotes the safety and soundness of individual financial institutions and monitors their impact on the financial system as a whole. It also ensures financial institutions are protecting consumers. The Federal Reserve System is responsible for supervising — monitoring, inspecting and examining — certain financial institutions to ensure that they comply with rules and regulations related to both safety and soundness and consumer protection. Bank examiners — employees of the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators — do not run or manage banks. Rather, they work to understand banks' operations, major risks, how well banks manage those risks and whether banks have sufficient financial and managerial resources. When a bank does not manage its risk well or have sufficient financial resources, examiners require the bank to take corrective action. 

The Richmond Fed supervises and regulates a wide range of financial institutions including those that operate exclusively in small rural towns or bustling cities, across multiple states within the Fifth District as well as some of the largest financial institutions that operate across the nation and around the world.  Did you know, that just like consumers and businesses, financial institutions have to borrow money, too?  To meet this critical need, we provide financial institutions with access to liquidity through the Fed’s discount window.

Banking supervision at the federal level is carried out by three agencies: the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). State banking agencies also supervise certain banks. Each agency supervises banks organized under different types of legal charters. Learn more about understanding Federal Reserve Supervision.