Milestones & More
The Atlanta Fed
Atlanta Fed President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Lockhart announced in September that he would step down from his position effective February 28, 2017. After nearly 10 years at the Atlanta Fed, Lockhart plans to continue to pursue interests in public policy, civic work, and private business. A search for his successor began immediately.
Research and Monetary Policy
Recognizing the importance of understanding liquidity, the Atlanta Fed, through the Center for Financial Innovation and Stability (CenFIS), assembled more than 200 market practitioners, policymakers, and academic experts at Amelia Island, Florida, in early May for the 21st Annual Financial Markets Conference.
In March, the former chief of the Bank of Japan visited the Atlanta Fed to discuss the profound economic effects of a rapidly aging population. Professor Masaaki Shirakawa said his country has been slow to seriously address the fiscal and economic problems this demographic shift created.
Atlanta Fed economists published research on a range of timely matters including wages, inflation, the Chinese economy, housing finance and mortgage markets, the labor market, financial stability, financial markets and regulation, social insurance programs for the aged, and the effects of delinquent debt on mortality.
The Research team refreshed the Atlanta Fed's Labor Force Participation Dynamics website. A key component of the site is the "spider chart," which gauges various aspects of the labor market. Updates include a tool for looking at the main reasons behind changes in labor force participation for different age groups. The Research department also enriched the Wage Growth Tracker tool with additional historical data.
Atlanta Fed economists also introduced the Taylor Rule Utility in September. The new tool allows users to craft their own tool to recommend interest rate policies. To help you sort through the most common variations, the Taylor Rule Utility lets you choose from various measures for the inflation gauge, inflation target, the natural real interest rate, and the resource gap.
The Community and Economic Development (CED) group and the Philadelphia Fed introduced a tool to track philanthropic grants for community development—revealing which cities tend to get them and why. Following the Money examines foundation grants across 366 U.S. metropolitan areas.
The CED also published research and held conferences on housing affordability issues, workforce development—in particular, opportunity occupations—and community development finance.
In partnership with Emory University, the Americas Center held its fifth annual international economics workshop in December. Economists from leading universities and the Federal Reserve System presented new research on a range of topics.
The Americas Center hosted its annual roundtable Brazil economic forecast event. The event was co-sponsored with the Brazil-American Chamber and the World Affairs Council of Atlanta.
The Americas Center and North Carolina State University co-hosted "FATF@25," a workshop on anti-money laundering measures. The meeting featured presentations by political scientists and policy analysts from eight countries on the latest trends in combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
Education and Public Outreach
More than 10,000 teachers participated in economic education workshops, webinars, and presentations. Attendance at guided tours at the District's museums increased 20 percent over the 2015 number. Through its economic education programs, the team met a strategic objective to reach 75 percent of high schools in the Sixth District that are identified as inner city, majority-minority, or girls' schools.
Online programs of the economic education team had a strong 2016. Page views of the Classroom Economist, Extra Credit, Katrina's Classroom, and Atlanta Fed lessons and activities more than doubled from 2015, topping 505,000. Student enrollments in classroom videos rose 34 percent to more than 138,000.
The economic education team distributed more than 65,000 printed infographics posters to teachers in 48 states and the Netherlands.
In the ECONversations series of webcasts, Atlanta Fed experts discussed subjects including the economic growth of small cities, the effects of an aging workforce, first-time homebuyer demographics, and real estate conditions. A special edition addressed how a Reserve Bank president is selected and fielded questions from viewers.
Six Public Affairs Forums brought leading authorities to Atlanta Fed offices to offer economic perspectives on public policy issues. Forums explored topics including the economics of college sports, the connection between human resource practices and big data, and perspectives on the U.S.-Cuba relationship.
The Atlanta Fed Speakers Bureau facilitated employees sharing research, data, and information with 159 community groups and professional associations.
Payments
The Retail Payments Office (RPO) successfully implemented the first of three phased enhancements as part of an industry-wide initiative to expand expedited clearing and settlement of Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) transactions. This initiative supports the Federal Reserve's long-term Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payments System (SIPS).
Additional SIPS-related milestones included promoting industry awareness for transaction messaging standards that will enhance cross-border payments efficiency, and working across the Federal Reserve System to strengthen the security and resiliency of the System's financial services operations.
The RPO partnered with the Retail Payments Risk Forum and Board of Governors staff to complete the sixth triennial Federal Reserve Payments Study, with initial results released in December.
Internally, the RPO continued to make progress on numerous automation initiatives that will fuel check and ACH processing efficiencies, strengthen resiliency, and enhance responsiveness to market demands.
Supervision and Regulation
The Supervision and Regulation division continued efforts to enhance its risk assessment capabilities and to integrate this perspective into its supervisory programs. For example, as a result of concerns in certain segments of the commercial real estate market, examiners conducted a horizontal review focused on state member banks with heightened commercial real estate loan growth or concentrations. The results led to a number of recommendations to enhance risk management activities in this area.
The division continued to promote efforts to inform the banking industry and general public through a variety of forums, publications, and live events, including the ViewPoint Live webcasts.
The division's annual Banking Outlook Conference featured keynote speakers and panel discussions on an array of banking and regulatory issues. The topics included the changing risk environment for financial institutions, commercial real estate markets and the impact of recent standards and regulation, technological innovation and its potential effect on traditional banks, and the national economic outlook.
Corporate Citizenship
Sixty-three Atlanta Fed employees served on the boards of directors or advisory councils for more than 100 nonprofit organizations working to address critical community needs like access to affordable housing, services for the homeless, and job training and placement for low- to moderate-income individuals.
Employees contributed 2,000 hours of volunteer time reading to students, offering career advice and résumé and interviewing assistance, preparing and delivering meals to seniors, cleaning up public spaces, and donating new and used goods to benefit veterans, seniors, and youth.
Financial Statements
The Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve Banks annually prepare and release audited financial statements reflecting balances (as of December 31) and income and expenses for the year then ended.
Audit Statement
The Federal Reserve Board engaged KPMG to audit the 2016 combined and individual financial statements of the Reserve Banks.*
In 2016, KPMG also conducted audits of internal controls over financial reporting for each of the Reserve Banks. Fees for KPMG services totaled $6.7 million. To ensure auditor independence, the Board requires that KPMG be independent in all matters relating to the audits. Specifically, KPMG may not perform services for the Reserve Banks or others that would place it in a position of auditing its own work, making management decisions on behalf of the Reserve Banks, or in any other way impairing its audit independence. In 2016, the Bank did not engage KPMG for any non-audit services.
* In addition, KPMG audited the Office of Employee Benefits of the Federal Reserve System (OEB), the Retirement Plan for Employees of the Federal Reserve System (System Plan), and the Thrift Plan for Employees of the Federal Reserve System (Thrift Plan). The System Plan and the Thrift Plan provide retirement benefits to employees of the Board, the Federal Reserve Banks, the OEB, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Each year, the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta provides a congressional report summarizing the office's actions with regard to the requirements under Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. This report highlights the work OMWI performed in the previous year to take the affirmative steps that the Dodd-Frank Act addresses—specifically, ensuring workforce and supplier diversity, as well as advancing financial literacy in inner-city, majority/minority, and girls' schools. The Atlanta Fed undertakes these efforts in the Sixth Federal Reserve District.
The Atlanta Fed's annual reports highlight the work of the Atlanta Fed over the preceding year. Reports before 2012 were printed publications, and many of these are available online on our website in PDF. Beginning in 2011, we have published online-only annual reports. These contain topical essays, dynamic charts, and videos and imagery, as well as links to the Bank's financial statements and lists of our current directors and officers.
About the Atlanta Fed
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks in the United States that, with the Board of Governors in Washington, DC, make up the Federal Reserve System—the nation's central bank. Since its establishment by an act of Congress in 1913, the Federal Reserve System's primary role has been to foster a sound financial system and a healthy economy. To advance this goal, the Atlanta Fed helps formulate monetary policy, supervises banks and bank and financial holding companies, and provides payment services to depository institutions and the federal government. Through its six offices in Atlanta, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, and New Orleans, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta serves the Sixth Federal Reserve District, which comprises Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, and parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Annual Report Staff
Mike Chriszt
Vice President and Public Affairs Officer
Robin Ratliff
Assistant Vice President and Public Information Officer
Nancy Condon
Managing Editor, Content and Publishing Director
Carole Starkey
Web Communications Director
Charles Davidson
Karen Jacobs
Writers
Peter Hamilton
Darryl Kennedy
Odie Swanegan
Graphic Designers
David Fine
Photographer
Eric Blanks
Michael Zavarello
Web Developers
Jean Tate
Cassie Gage
Marketing and Social Media
Mark McElroy
Creative Services Director
Graham Justice
Jason Palmer
Video Producers
Dennis Lockhart
President and CEO
Dave Altig
Mike Bryan
John Robertson
Advisers and Contributors
Jeanne Zimmermann
Web Editor
Branches & Offices
Atlanta Office
1000 Peachtree Street N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309-4470
Birmingham Branch
524 Liberty Parkway
Birmingham, Alabama 35242-7531
Jacksonville Branch
800 Water Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32204
Miami Branch
9100 N.W. 36th Street
Doral, Florida 33178-2425
Nashville Branch
333 Commerce Street
Suite 1000
Nashville, Tennessee 37201
New Orleans Branch
525 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130-3480