2011 Bank Highlights
We promote financial stability through our bank supervision program.
To advance an understanding of the interconnectedness of the U.S. financial system, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston supports System efforts to strengthen the supervision of systemically important sectors, markets, and products to protect against financial instability.
In addition to supervising complex banking organizations and regional and community banks, in 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- helped monitor the money market mutual fund industry and advocated for additional reforms to make the industry more resilient;
- contributed to developing a supervisory approach for insurance-focused savings and loan holding companies;
- worked to enhance loan-valuation methodology and to reduce reliance on credit ratings agencies;
- formed an internal, cross-functional Macro Financial Steering Committee to contribute to Federal Reserve System efforts to strengthen regulation of foreign banking organizations operating in the United States, evaluate capital surcharges, and improve stress testing.
We support economic growth through monetary and public policy research.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston contributes to the Federal Reserve System’s dual mandate of promoting price stability and encouraging maximum employment. We do this through sharing insightful and compelling research with policymakers and providing extensive policy analysis to President Rosengren prior to each Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
In 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- provided insight on the employment outlook, strategies to help mitigate prolonged unemployment, and the impact of structural factors on unemployment;
- examined inflation dynamics, using both macroeconomic and microeconomic evidence to improve our modeling of inflation dynamics and strengthen our ability to forecast inflation.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston also undertook substantial, thought-provoking research on important public policy. As a result:
- researchers gathered information about the effectiveness of foreclosure-prevention policies in New England and provided testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Hearing on Housing Finance Reform to help promote stability in the housing market;
- Massachusetts policymakers were briefed about adjusting municipal aid formulas to promote greater equity;
- testimony on behalf of a Senate and House bill was based on recommendations from our research about a mismatch of supply and demand of skilled labor in New England;
- the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was informed on consumer payment choice and protection issues.
Also in 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston hosted its fifty-sixth economic conference, The Long-Term Effects of the Great Recession. The conference attracted a new audience in the financial services industry and brought attention to substantive policy questions such as whether the Federal Reserve System could serve as the lender of last resort in the next crisis.
We make a difference in the region with our outreach and volunteerism.
As part of our commitment to advance the economic conditions of low- and moderate-income households in New England and to help stabilize communities, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston endeavors to spur revitalization in smaller industrial cities.
During 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- presented research to the mayor of Providence on the growth of small businesses in that community. This grew out of the research the Bank conducted in Springfield, Massachusetts, on the potential of Latino small business to drive revitalization of that city;
- convened business leaders in Greater Springfield to hear President Rosengren advocate for a comprehensive and inclusive vision for the city;
- assisted Western Massachusetts colleges in their efforts to strengthen their role in K–12 education;
- engaged forty-one civic leaders in a “City to City” trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to learn about revitalization approaches that have worked in that city with a view to possible application locally.
To provide further financial and economic education to our communities, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- offered part-time jobs and college-preparation classes to high school students to encourage them to pursue higher education;
- reached a wider subset of consumers and consumer professionals by translating the Consumer Financial Emergency Survival Kit into Spanish;
- co-conducted a summit that brought together more than five hundred students and educators across the region to engage in learning and teaching economic concepts;
- opened an updated New England Economic Adventure exhibit to the public to provide another opportunity to share the messages and roles of the Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston created several opportunities for supporting local communities and people in need. Nearly 35 percent of the Bank’s employees and tenants participated in volunteer activities in 2011. Major volunteerism achievements included:
- employee and tenant contributions toward Japan’s earthquake and tsunami relief efforts;
- employee donations of $166,000 to the United Way of Massachusetts Bay;
- partnership with eight agencies to bring together eighty-five volunteers to make a difference in local communities for the Bank’s United Way Community Care Day.
We advance our business practices with our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston works to advance a diverse and inclusive environment above and beyond the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) requirements stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. A key goal is to ensure diversity at every level of the organization by reflecting the diversity of the relevant applicant pools, partnering to increase diversity in the pipeline of candidates, and working proactively to confirm that our recruitment and retention practices keep pace with an increasingly diverse workforce. To that end, as it has done in the past, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston continues to:
- attract diverse applicants for positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston;
- improve diversity efforts in the areas of recruitment and promotion;
- uncover new candidate pipelines to increase diversity on the Board of Directors.
Another Bank goal is to make diversity and inclusion a conscious part of how we conduct business, including assessing vendor diversity policies, providing technical assistance to suppliers, and evaluating progress on diversity and inclusion at regulated financial institutions.
In 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- enhanced internal supplier diversity procedures and provided employee training to increase procurement opportunities for minority- and women-owned suppliers;
- developed a supplier diversity good-faith-effort determination model for the Federal Reserve System.
We support the U.S. Treasury by delivering efficient, safe, and accessible payment services.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston operates three payment and funds management programs on behalf of the U.S. Treasury. The programs include:
- Internet Payment Platform (IPP), an application that enables federal agencies to handle purchase order and invoice processing electronically in a single Web-based system;
- Stored Value Card (SVC), a program using smart-card technology as a cash-management tool for military personnel in the United States and eleven other countries;
- Treasury Cash Management System (TCMS), a program that enables the Treasury to transfer funds and plays a key role in the Treasury’s goal to modernize the accounting, monitoring, and management of its operating cash account.
In 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston made significant progress in each of these programs:
- IPP continued to expand rapidly to help the Treasury produce cost savings for the government. IPP enrolled fourteen thousand new suppliers, two new agencies, and fourteen bureaus. In support of President Obama’s “Campaign to Cut Waste,” the U.S. Department of Treasury is mandating that by the end of 2012, all Treasury Bureaus use the IPP, potentially enabling savings of $450 million annually.
- The SVC team enrolled the Marines and Navy in its program of smart cards. The SVC program allows these new members and the U.S. Army and Air Force to use smart cards instead of cash, thereby reducing the need for the Treasury to ship, store, and process hard currency around the globe. Also, SVC supported roughly $4.3 billion of the $5 billion processed through the entire program.
- The TCMS project team met all deliverables for its official implementation in September 2012.
Additionally, in 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta convened the Industry Mobile Payments workgroup, representing key stakeholder organizations, with the goal of fostering a successful U.S. mobile payments framework. Insights from this workgroup on trends, opportunities, and issues were shared with the Treasury to help ensure domestic mobile payments evolve in a safe, efficient, and accessible manner.
We provide leadership for the Federal Reserve System in IT and financial management.
On behalf of all Federal Reserve Banks, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is responsible for the coordination of Federal Reserve System financial management and Internet and directory services.
Over the course of 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- provided System governance groups with value-added financial analysis, consulting, and information needed to make better investment decisions;
- deployed cutting-edge solutions, including new data-analysis tools that will help proactively identify sources of Internet attack activity.
We maintain highly effective and collaborative internal operations.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston provides cash services for First District financial institutions. During Hurricane Irene, various depository institutions in Vermont and Connecticut experienced significant flooding in their vaults. We destroyed approximately $700,000 of ruined currency and ensured that the affected banks had dry currency for their communities’ cash needs.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is committed to safety, security, and maintaining a “green” building. In 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston:
- worked diligently to protect the First Amendment rights of demonstrators while also protecting the safety of employees and tenants during the seventy-two days of Occupy Boston protests, which took place across the street from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston;
- earned a third consecutive ENERGY STAR Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy in recognition of its exceptional energy performance, which places the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Building in the top 25 percent of most efficient office buildings in the nation.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston also increased its emphasis on innovation in ways it communicates to the public. In order to best share the Bank’s work and mission with general audiences:
- President Rosengren gave speeches in many venues and also participated in interviews on radio and television to discuss the state of the economy;
- the Bank expanded the use of the @BostonFed Twitter account, ultimately bringing our follower count to over 6,400 by the end of the year;
- the Bank launched its new public website, www.bostonfed.org, and received 1.8 million visits from 212 countries and territories,
- the Bank made progress developing mobile apps, Quick Response (QR) codes, and interactive multimedia.
