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The Federal Reserve System (also known as the Federal Reserve, and
informally as the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was
created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act,
largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in
1907. Over time, the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System have
expanded, and its structure has evolved. Events such as the Great Depression in the
1930s were major factors leading to changes in the system.
The U.S. Congress established three key objectives for monetary policy in
the Federal Reserve Act: Maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate longterm interest rates. The first two objectives are sometimes referred to as the Federal
Reserve's dual mandate. Its duties have expanded over the years, and today,
according to official Federal Reserve documentation, include conducting the
nation's monetary policy, supervising and regulating banking institutions,
maintaining the stability of the financial system and providing financial services
to depository
institutions,
the
U.S.
government,
and
foreign
official
institutions. The Fed also conducts research into the economy and releases
numerous publications, such as the Beige Book.
The Federal Reserve System's structure is composed of the presidentially
appointed Board of Governors (or Federal Reserve Board), the Federal Open
Market Committee (FOMC), twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks located in
major cities throughout the nation, numerous privately owned U.S. member banks
and various advisory councils. The FOMC is the committee responsible for setting
monetary policy and consists of all seven members of the Board of Governors and
the twelve regional bank presidents, though only five bank presidents vote at any
given time (the president of the New York Fed and four others who rotate through
one-year terms). The Federal Reserve System has both private and public
components, and was designed to serve the interests of both the general public and
private bankers. The result is a structure that is considered unique among central
banks. It is also unusual in that an entity outside of the central bank, namely
the United States Department of the Treasury, creates the currency used.
According to the Board of Governors, the Federal Reserve System "is
considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do
not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or
legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the
Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple
presidential and congressional terms".
The authority of the Federal Reserve System is derived from statutes enacted
by the U.S. Congress and the System is subject to congressional oversight. The
members of the Board of Governors, including its chair and vice-chair, are chosen
by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The federal government sets the
salaries of the Board's seven governors. Nationally chartered commercial banks are
required to hold stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of their region; this entitles
them to elect some of the members of the board of the regional Federal Reserve
Bank. Thus the Federal Reserve System has both public and private aspects. The
U.S. Government receives all of the system's annual profits, after a
statutory dividend of 6% on member banks' capital investment is paid, and an
account surplus is maintained. In 2010, the Federal Reserve made a profit of $82
billion and transferred $79 billion to the U.S. Treasury.
Subject 3-1:
The European Central Bank (ECB)
The European
Central
Bank (ECB)
is
the central
bank for
states can issue euro coins, but the amount must be authorized by the ECB
beforehand.
The ECB is governed by European law directly. Its capital is five billion euro held
by the national central banks of the member states as shareholders. The initial
capital allocation key was determined in 1998 on the basis of the states' population
and GDP, but the key is adjustable. Shares in the ECB are not transferable and
cannot be used as collateral.
The primary objective of the European Central Bank, as laid down in Article
127 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, is to maintain price
stability within the Eurozone. The Governing Council in October 1998 defined
price stability as inflation of around 2%, a year-on-year increase in the
Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for the euro area of below 2% and
added that price stability was to be maintained over the medium term. Unlike for
example the United States Federal Reserve Bank, the ECB has only one primary
objective but this objective has never been defined in statutory law.
Subject 3-2:
Decision-making bodies of the ECB:
The Executive Board
The Executive Board is responsible for the implementation of monetary policy
(defined by the Governing Council) and the day-to-day running of the bank. It can
issue decisions to national central banks and may also exercise powers delegated to
it by the Governing Council. It is composed of the President of the Bank, the VicePresident and four other members. They are all appointed for non-renewable terms
of eight years.
The Governing Council
The Governing Council is the main decision-making body of the Eurosystem. It
comprises the members of the Executive Board (6 in total) and the governors of the
National Central Banks of the euro area countries (18 as of 2014).
The General Council
The General Council is a body dealing with transitional issues of euro adoption, for
example, fixing the exchange rates of currencies being replaced by the euro.
The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the collective of
European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their sole official
currency. The Eurosystem consists of the European Central Bank and the central
banks of the member states that belong to the eurozone (their function is to apply
the monetary policy decided by the ECB). The primary objective of the
Eurosystem is price stability. Secondary objectives are financial stability and
financial integration. The mission statement of the Eurosystem says that the ECB
and the national central banks jointly contribute to achieving the objectives.
The basic tasks to be carried out by the Eurosystem are:
to hold and manage the official foreign reserves of the Member States
Subject 4:
The Financial System - Financial Services
In finance, the financial system is the system that allows the transfer
of money between savers and investors and borrowers. A financial system can
operate on a global, regional or firm.
According to Franklin Allen: "Financial systems are crucial to the allocation of
resources in a modern economy". They channel household savings to the corporate
sector and allocate investment funds among firms; and they enable households and
firms to share risks. These functions are common to the financial systems of most
developed economies. Yet the form of these financial systems varies widely.
The financial systems depend on the countries viewpoint on freedom of trade.
Some countries i.e. The Soviet Union had socialist financial systems because they
value centralized organized state funded trading rather than freedom of trade.
Financial services:
The term "financial services" became more prevalent in the United States partly as
a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which enabled different
types of companies operating in the U.S. financial services industry to exercise.
Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry,
which encompasses a broad range of organizations that manage money, including
credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, accountancy
companies, stock brokerages, investment funds, real estate funds.
As of 2004, the financial services industry represented 20% of the market
capitalization of the S&P 500 in the United States. Over the 2010, finance industry
income as a proportion of GDP rose from 2.5% to 7.5%, and the finance industry's
proportion of all corporate income rose from 10% to 20%.
Market capitalization (or market cap): is the total value of the shares outstanding
of a publicly traded company. The total market capitalization of all publicly traded
companies in the world was US$51.2 trillion in January 2007.
Credit union: A credit union operated for the purpose of promoting thrift,
providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its
members.
Brokerage firm, or simply brokerage, is a financial institution that facilitates the
buying and selling of financial securities.
Real estate fund: is a fund that holds diversified properties within a portfolio that
is managed by a team of experienced professionals. Typically real estate funds
invest in commercial real estate like industrial buildings, office spaces, retail stores
and occasionally residential property investments.
Subject 5:
Global Financial System
facilitate
international
flows
of financial
capital for
purposes
of investment and trade financing. Since emerging in the late 19th century during
the first modern wave of economic globalization, its evolution is marked by the
establishment
of central
banks, multilateral
treaties,
and intergovernmental
Subject 6:
Interbank Market
match buy and sell orders internally with each other, and pass the remaining
balance to the interbank market in order to meet orders.
Apart from the internal matching of orders, forex brokers charge usually small fee
in the interbank market. This small fee is the main source of income for brokers.
How to understand the interbank market?
Understanding the interbank market can be beneficial because of its role as the
circulatory system of a nations economy. Tensions in the interbank market are
reflected in the various other financial markets, lack of liquidity, increased
volatility, and currency shortages. If banks themselves are unable to obtain the
funds necessary to maintain their own businesses, they will be unable to extend
credit to consumers, firms, mortgage borrowers, students, and many other types of
borrowers. As such, tensions and turmoil in the interbank market have important
implications for general economic stability, market trends and they are carefully
monitored by the relevant authorities. Difficulties in the interbank market are often
mirrored by severe reactions in the forex market, where banks try to obtain funding
for their cross-border operations.
The interbank market is decentralized, meaning that there is no central exchange
quoting prices and collecting statistics. However, both national central banks and
international institutions such as the Bank of International Settlements collect data
from the various participants in the interbank market on a voluntary basis in order
evaluate economic developments better. The data and interpretations generated by
them are widely used by traders, economists, analysts, and politicians.
Overnight rates
The maximum maturity term of most transactions in the interbank market is one
month, and a majority of interbank activity is conducted through overnight
unsecured lending where there is no requirement of collateral. In performing
overnight transactions, banks use the main interest rates declared by the central
bank. This rate is called the federal funds rate in the US, in the Eurozone it is the
refinancing rate, in Japan it is named the overnight call rate.
When funding is not readily available, the first option considered by banks is
overnight borrowing. If the quality or quantity of the required collateral is too high,
bank failures can result. It is rare to see the overnight market completely shut
down, and in such cases the central bank will intervene in a heavy handed manner
to maintain its rate target.
Overnight Libor
The overnight libor rate is the actual rate at which transactions in the interbank
market take place, in contrast to the target rate which is the level at which
transactions ought to take place, as desired by the central bank. Libor rate lower
than the target rate will result in a depreciating currency since there is more supply
than there is demand in the interbank market, and vice versa.
Central banks explicitly aim to keep the overnight rate in line with the target rate
declared, and they will never allow a large divergence to exist for long. To bring
the actual rates in the interbank market in line with the target rate, central banks
conduct open market operations.
Open market operations
Open market operations involve repurchase agreements (repos) and reverse repos
where the central bank buys or sells government bonds in return for cash for a
specified maturity. By using this tool, the central bank can control the amount of
liquidity in the system, as well as the overnight rate, because it is very sensitive to
liquidity conditions in the market. Central banks regularly intervene in the
interbank market in order to manage routine and can also conduct special
unscheduled operations in response to tensions.
FEDERAL FUNDS RATE: The interest rate at which a depository institution lends funds
maintained at the Federal Reserve to another depository institution overnight. The federal funds
rate is generally only applicable to the most creditworthy institutions when they borrow and lend
overnight funds to each other.
Overnight LIBOR interest rate is the interest rate at which a panel of selected banks borrows
funds from one another with a maturity (overnight).
Raising capital for businesses: A stock exchange provides companies with the
facility to raise capital for expansion through selling shares to the investing public.
Mobilizing savings for investment: When people draw their savings and invest in
shares, it usually leads to rational allocation of resources because funds, which
could have been consumed, or kept in idle deposits with banks, are mobilized and
redirected to help companies' management boards finance their organizations. This
may promote business activity with benefits for several economic sectors such as
agriculture, commerce and industry, resulting in stronger economic growth and
higher productivity levels of firms.
Facilitating company growth: Companies view acquisitions as an opportunity to
expand product lines, increase distribution channels, hedge against volatility,
increase their market share, or acquire other necessary business assets.
A takeover bid or a merger agreement through the stock market is one of the
simplest and most common ways for a company to grow by acquisition or fusion.
Profit sharing: Both casual and professional stock investors, as large
as institutional investors or as small as an ordinary middle-class family,
through dividends and stock price increases that may result in capital gains, share
in the wealth of profitable businesses. Unprofitable and troubled businesses may
result in capital losses for shareholders.
LIBOR or ICE LIBOR (previously BBA LIBOR) is a benchmark rate that some
of the worlds leading banks charge each other for short-term loans. It stands
for IntercontinentalExchange London Interbank Offered Rate and serves as the
first step to calculating interest rates on various loans throughout the
world. LIBOR is administered by the ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), and is
based on five currencies: U.S. dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), pound sterling (GBP),
Japanese yen (JPY) and Swiss franc (CHF), and serves seven different maturities:
overnight, one week, and 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12 months. There are a total of 35
different LIBOR rates each business day. The most commonly quoted rate is the
three-month U.S. dollar rate.
Subject 7:
NYMEX and NASDAQ Stock Market
The New
York
Mercantile
Exchange (NYMEX)
is
a commodity futures
York
City.
Additional
offices
are
located
in Boston,
and the overnight electronic trading computer systems for future delivery. The
prices quoted for transactions on the exchange are the basis for prices that people
pay for various commodities throughout the world.
Commodities Traded:
NYMEX Division
Coal
Crude oil
Electricity
Gasoline
Heating oil
COMEX Division
Natural gas
Palladium
Platinum
Propane
Uranium
Aluminum
Copper
Gold
Silver
three market makers (financial firms that act as brokers or dealers for specific
securities) and must meet minimum requirements for assets, capital, public shares,
and shareholders.
The Deutsche Brse Group, is a marketplace organizer for the trading
of shares and other securities. It gives companies and investors access to
global capital markets. It is a joint stock company and was founded in 1993. The
headquarters are in Frankfurt. As of December 2010, the over 765 companies listed
had a combined market capitalization of EUR 1.4 trillion.
Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the world's 10th largest stock exchange by market
capitalization, located in Frankfurt, Germany. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is
owned and operated by Deutsche Brse. In May 2011, the Exchange agreed to
move to abolish floor trading and today trading takes place exclusively via
the Xetra system.
The DAX (Deutscher Aktien Index (German stock index) is a stock market
index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock
Exchange. Prices are taken from the electronic Xetra trading system. According
to Deutsche Brse, the operator of Xetra, DAX measures the performance of
the Prime Standards 30 largest German companies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, also called the Industrial Average, the Dow
Jones, the Dow Jones Industrial, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is a stock market
index, and one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal. The industrial
average was first calculated on May 26, 1896. Currently owned by S&P Dow
Jones Indices, it is an index that shows how 30 large publicly owned companies
based in the United States have traded during a standard trading session in
the stock market.
Credit rating agencies: (CRA, also called a ratings service) are companies that
assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making
timely interest payments and the likelihood of default.
The debt instruments rated by CRAs include government bonds, corporate
bonds, municipal bonds, preferred stock, and collateralized securities, such as
mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. but not of
individual consumers.
The issuers of the obligations or securities may be companies, special purpose
entities, state or local governments, non-profit organizations, or sovereign
nations. A credit rating facilitates the trading of securities on a secondary market. It
affects the interest rate that a security pays out. Individual consumers are rated for
creditworthiness not by credit rating agencies but by credit bureaus (also called