What banks does the Federal Reserve System supervise and regulate? What is a bank holding company?

The Fed has primary supervisory responsibility for two major categories of banking organizations: state-chartered banks and their subsidiaries that are members of the Federal Reserve System, and bank holding companies, including financial holding companies and any of their nonbank subsidiaries. The Fed is also the “umbrella” supervisor of bank holding companies, of which financial holding companies are a subset. A bank holding company is simply a company that may own many banks. A bank holding company can choose to obtain a financial holding company status so that it may engage in a broad array of financially related activities. For more information about the Fed's supervisory responsibilities, go to www.federalreserve.gov/pf/pdf/pf_5.pdf.  more