# Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, (informally referred to as the Atlanta Fed and the Bank), is the sixth district of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States and is headquartered in midtown Atlanta, Georgia.
The Atlanta Fed covers the U.S. states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, the eastern two-thirds of Tennessee, the southern portion of Louisiana, and southern Mississippi as part of the Federal Reserve System. Along with its Atlanta headquarters, the Banks operates five branches with the sixth district, which are located in Birmingham, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, and New Orleans. These branches provide cash to banks, savings and loans, and other depository institutions; transfer money electronically; and clear millions of checks.
In addition to supporting the U.S. financial system, the Atlanta Fed carries out the supervision and regulation of the banks operating within the sixth district. It also is a source of research and expertise for public and private decision makers within the district. In recent years, researchers within the Atlanta Fed have innovated new tools to gauge the health of the macro U.S. economy, the two most notable are GDPNow and Wage Growth Tracker.
The Atlanta Fed is currently led by Dr. Raphael Bostic, who was appointed in 2017 and is a member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the committee that makes key decisions about interest rates and the growth of the United States money supply.

## Responsibilities and functions

The Atlanta Fed's footprint covers the southeastern U.S., including the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, 74 counties in the eastern two-thirds of Tennessee, 38 parishes of southern Louisiana, and 43 counties of southern Mississippi as part of the Federal Reserve System.
The Atlanta Fed, along with the other 11 regional district banks, has three primary functions: assisting with monetary policy, operation of nationwide payment system, and administering bank supervision and regulation. Its job is to decide the interest rates, and the president meets with other bank presidents and board members. The bank's board of directors makes recommendations on the levels of discount rates.
Secondarily, the Atlanta Fed is a source of research and expertise for public and private decision makers within the district. Researchers within the Atlanta Fed have innovated new tools to gauge the health of the macro U.S. economy, the two most notable are GDPNow Wage Growth Tracker. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow, which is a "nowcasting" model for gross domestic product (GDP) growth that synthesizes the related GDP subcomponents with monthly source data prior to the formal GDP release by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, is widely followed by financial markets. The Wage Growth Tracker is a measure of the nominal wage growth of individuals, using microdata from the Current Population Survey (CPS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

## Leadership

The bank is governed by a board of directors, which is drawn from the sixth district's business community, banks, and labor and consumer organizations, and makes recommendations every two weeks on the level of the discount rate, which is the rate at which the bank lends to commercial banks.
The bank's staff is led by Dr. Raphael Bostic, who was appointed in 2017 and is member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

### Governors and presidents

With the appointment of President Bostic in 2017, there have been 15 chief executive officers of the Atlanta Fed. The title of Reserve Bank chief executive officer was changed to president by the Banking Act of 1935.
| # | CEO | Life span | Term start | Term end |
| Governors |||||
| 1 | Joseph A. McCord | 1857-1943 | October 19, 1914 | January 10, 1919 |
| 2 | Max Wellborn | 1862-1957 | March 1, 1919 | January 1, 1928 |
| 3 | Eugene R. Black | 1873-1934 | January 13, 1928 | May 19, 1933 |
| - | W.S. Johns | - | May 19, 1933 | August 16, 1934 |
| 4 | Eugene R. Black* | 1873-1934 | August 16, 1934 | December 19, 1934 |
| 5 | Oscar Newton* | 1877-1939 | January 10, 1935 | — |
| Presidents |||||
| (5) | Oscar Newton* | 1877-1939 | — | February 13, 1939 |
| 6 | Robert S. Parker* | 1884-1941 | February 18, 1939 | March 28, 1941 |
| 7 | William S. McLarin Jr. | 1889-1960 | May 9, 1941 | March 1, 1951 |
| 8 | Malcolm H. Bryan | 1902-1967 | April 1, 1951 | September 30, 1965 |
| 9 | Harold T. Patterson | 1903-1971 | October 1, 1965 | January 31, 1968 |
| 10 | M. Monroe Kimbrel | 1903-1971 | February 1, 1968 | March 31, 1980 |
| 11 | William F. Ford | - | August 1, 1980 | October 1, 1983 |
| 12 | Robert P. Forrestal | 1931-2004 | December 7, 1983 | December 31, 1995 |
| 13 | George C. "Jack" Guynn | 1943- | January 1, 1996 | September 30, 2006 |
| - | Patrick K. Barron | - | October 1, 2006 | February 28, 2007 |
| 14 | Dennis P. Lockhart† | 1947- | March 1, 2007 | February 28, 2017 |
| - | Marie C. Gooding | - | March 1, 2017 | June 4, 2017 |
| 15 | Raphael Bostic | 1966- | June 5, 2017 | Incumbent |
| | Denotes acting officeholder |
| † | Stepped down due to reaching retirement age |
| * | Died in office |

### Board of directors

The following people are on the board of directors as of September 2022:
Class A :
| Name | Title | Term expires |
| Robert W. Dumas | Chairman, president, CEO AuburnBank Auburn, Alabama | 2023 |
| Abel L. Iglesias | President and CEO Professional Holding Corporation, Professional Bank Coral Gables, Florida | 2025 |
| Kessel D. Stelling Jr. | Executive chair Synovus Financial Corporation Columbus, Georgia | 2024 |
Class B :
| Name | Title | Term expires |
| John W. Garratt | Executive VP, CFO Dollar General Goodlettsville, Tennessee | 2024 |
| Michael Russell | CEO H.J. Russell & Company Atlanta, Georgia | 2025 |
| Nicole B. Thomas | Hospital president Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville Jacksonville, Florida | 2023 |
Class C :
| Name | Title | Term expires |
| Elizabeth A. Smith (chair) | Former executive chair Bloomin' Brands Inc. St. Petersburg, Florida | 2023 |
| Claire Lewis Arnold (deputy chair) | CEO Leapfrog Services Inc. Atlanta, Georgia | 2025 |
| Gregory A. Haile | President Broward College Fort Lauderdale, Florida | 2024 |
All terms expire on December 31.

## Headquarters

Since 2001, the Atlanta Fed has been located at 1000 Peachtree Street NE in Midtown Atlanta. Prior to 2001, the bank was located in downtown Atlanta at 104 Marietta Street NW, which is now the home of the State Bar of Georgia.
The bank hosts the Atlanta Monetary Museum at its building.

## Branches

* Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Birmingham Branch Office
* Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Jacksonville Branch Office
* Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Miami Branch Office
* Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta New Orleans Branch Office
* Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Nashville Branch Office