Mini:Federal reserve
The Federal Reserve System (informally The Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It is currently headed by Ben Bernanke (edit), chairman of the board of governors. The Fed implements monetary policy largely by targeting the federal funds rate (edit), the rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans. It also directly sets the discount rate (edit), which is the interest rate that banks pay the Fed to borrow directly from it. This rate is generally set at a rate close to 100 points above the target federal funds rate. Both of these rates influence the prime rate (edit) which is usually about 3 percentage points higher than the federal funds rate. See: Official site of the Federal Reserve
