MONEY BUSINESS FEDERAL RESERVE BRANCH TOURS EXPLAIN HOW BANKING INDUSTRY WORKS.Byline: Chris Sieroty Staff Writer Rod Palencia says his reason for taking a tour of the Federal Reserve Bank branch in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or was simple, ``it was to get a better understanding of how the banking system operates.'' That may sound funny coming from the branch manager of a CalFed branch in West Los Angeles
``I think it helps me appreciate how the Federal Reserve System was developed,'' Palencia said of the 90-minute tour. ``I also learned why some of the policies were enacted, which I can relay to my employees and customers.'' Aside from the policies and practices, Palencia and his group also found some surprises from Cathy Paredes, program director, public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most and economic education. The branch contains the largest check processing center in the Federal Reserve, with employees handling some 2.3 million checks daily and nearly 3 million over a long weekend, such as the Labor Day Labor Day, holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada on the first Monday in September to honor the laborer. It was inaugurated by the Knights of Labor in 1882 and made a national holiday by the U.S. Congress in 1894. holiday. Most of the checks are processed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., said Paredes, by large sorting machines that can process a check in just a few seconds. ``Christmas and Mother's Day are the two times a year when we process the most bounced checks,'' Paredes said. Palencia and 29 other California Federal Bank California Federal Bank, often abbreviated to "Cal Fed", was a savings and loan bank in California. It existed from 1926 until 2002, when its parent company Golden State Bancorp was acquired by Citigroup, resulting in the bank being merged into Citibank. employees spent a recent afternoon learning the history of U.S. currency and how checks are processed. They also caught a glimpse of the millions of dollars that are stored in the Fed's massive vault. The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. branch offers two tours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The tours run from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., said Tom Waldman, director of public relations. ``We try to keep them to under 35 people,'' said Waldman. ``The tours are offered to high schools, businesses and senior groups.'' Paredes said each branch in the Federal Reserve System offers tours. ``When I take a group on a tour, at the end, I want them to understand the Federal Reserve System,'' she said. ``To most people it's a pyramid with Greenspan and Co. on top and nobody knows what's going on What's Going On is a record by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. Released on May 21, 1971 (see 1971 in music), What's Going On reflected the beginning of a new trend in soul music. below.'' Led by Paredes, the bank executives began their tour by watching a video titled ``The Fed Today.'' It won't win the Oscar for best documentary, but the 15 minute video, narrated by Charles Osgood For the psychologist see, see . Charles Osgood (born Charles Osgood Wood, III on January 8, 1933) is a radio and television commentator in the United States. His daily program, The Osgood File, has been broadcast on the CBS Radio Network since 1971. of CBS News CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. Its current president is Sean McManus who is also head of CBS Sports. Current productions Current television shows
Osgood also explains the structure of the Fed, monetary policy, the discount rate, banking supervision and the financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. that the nation's central bank offers. ``To keep prices steady, keep jobs and production both coming, the job of the Fed, when all's done and said, is to keep the economy humming,'' said Osgood. Paredes is one of several employees who takes visitors on tours at the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is the federal bank for the twelfth district in the United States. The twelfth district is made up of nine western states—Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—plus American Samoa, , at 950 S. Grand Ave. ``They don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what happens when the money and checks come to us,'' said Paredes. ``The tour shows them the importance of their part in the process.'' Following the video, the CalFed employees were split into two groups, with the first 15 beginning their tour in the vault "In the Vault" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, written on September 18, 1925 and first published in the November 1925 issue of the amateur press journal Tryout. . After a quick elevator ride down to the vault, visitors are greeted by several armed guards and funneled through a metal detector. It's as close as they would be allowed to one of the guards. The vault is divided into several sections. One area is designated to handle coins, while other areas handle deposits and withdrawals, the counting and shredding of currency and storage. Paredes explained that the Los Angeles branch is responsible for putting the new state quarters into circulation in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. and Arizona. The new California quarter is expected to be released in 2005. All quarters are printed at mints in Denver or Philadelphia and are sent to Los Angeles in $1,000 bags, she said. In a separate area Fed employees process about 8 million currency notes every day. After the notes are processed they are put into bins which are used to transfer money around the vault. As a safety precaution, two employees are always in a room where there is coin or currency, she said. They also shred $30 million to $45 million daily. Paredes said until all the old $20 bills are taken out of circulation and replaced with new ones that figure will be slightly higher. Before their tour of the vault concluded, the CalFed employees were given the opportunity to gaze into the storage area, where billions of dollars are stacked up to the ceiling in containers. A container filled, for example, with neatly stacked $1 bills would be worth $420,000. A container with $10 bills would be worth $4.2 million. Paredes wouldn't reveal exactly how much money was stored in the vault. ``All I can tell you is that it's a lot of money.'' Besides checks and cash, food stamps also are processed there, and about $7 million worth are destroyed daily, said Waldman. Unlike a dollar bill, which has an average life span of just over a year, or coins, which can last for 30 years, food stamps are destroyed after one use in an effort to cut down on fraud, he said. ``All of this is a fee-for-service business that we provided to help keep the market competitive,'' added Paredes. Following the tour, Wendy Scarlett, branch manager of CalFed's Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. office, said the experience gave her a new appreciation of what exactly the Los Angeles branch does. ``Now if a customer asks me a question, I have some insight into the workings of the Fed branch in Los Angeles,'' she said. ``There has also been a lot of changes to currency lately.'' Among the recent changes to U.S. currency are redesigned $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. With the increase in population over the years, the Los Angeles branch is now the second-largest branch in the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve will also open a new vault next September in Phoenix. CAPTION(S): 4 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Visitors to the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles, which offers public tours, look at some of the exhibits in the lobby. (2 -- 4 -- color) Bundles of $100 bills are stacked and counted in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank branch in Los Angeles. Cathy Paredes, above right, points out bags of checks that were delivered to the Federal Reserve Bank for processing. The area of the Federal Reserve vault, at left, is designated to handle the counting and storage of paper currency. Officials won't say how much money is stored in this vault. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
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